My good buddy Stunt Eagle (Keith Trostle) sent me the following:
Tom,
I am familiar with the series of Paul Plecan plans that were available in the late ,40's. There were a number of these things that Plecan sold. If you need, I will check the name of the company he used to sell these things. There was a large number including free flight. For CL Scale, he sold in combinations, like four to a set. Most of the CL scale models were 1"=1'. Many were available including the P-51 Mustang, P-38, Bf-109, Hawker Tornado and many others. He published many designs including the Grumman F-7F Tigercat, Bonzo, and many more.
Bob Whitely and I were intrigued by several of these designs including the Corsair. The plans showed a symmetrical or near symmetrical airfoil, about 18%, fairly short coupled with a horizontal tail that that "looked" like it would do the job. (Like many US carrier planes, they are short coupled with a comparatively larger tail compared generally to land based fighters. (Think of the Bearcat and Fury.) I could go back and check the area, but we thought with that configuration, if it would be light enough, the airplane could be capable of doing something that could resemble the Old Time pattern.
Anyway, Bob built one. It was light, I forget what the weight was but it was not out of bounds for a ship to do a pattern with the area. It was nicely done, a nice finish and relatively light. Bob flew it several times, but never even attempted to do a loop. I do not know who has the airplane, but Gary Gingrich might have it.
I built the Tornado. About 18% symmetrical wing, long tail, built light, thinking the same thing we thought about the Corsair. The best it could do was a mush entry into a 45 degree climb and a mushed exit from a 45 degree dive. Never attempted a loop.
Chris McMillan built the Tigercat. He was able to horse it into some loops and maybe a lazy eight, but nothing more. You might want to talk to Chris about it when you have the chance.
Somebody tried the P-38, but I cannot remember any details. The P-38 does not lend itself to make a good platform for any kind of stunt. Aspect ratio is too high, narrow wing tips. Most attempts I have seen to build a stunt ship that even sort of looks like a P-38 has not worked well. (Lew McFarland's may be an exception, but it was not the Placan design.)
The point being, for some reason, our thinking about these designs to do any form of the OTS pattern was flawed. The airplane that Bob built may have been cut by Robin.
I did not want to post on your Stunt Hangar listing for the Sizemore kit. Somebody might be able to get it to work for some representation of the OTS pattern, but you might want to put a disclaimer on your listing that it is not a performing OTS design.
Keith
This really brought back memories of watching Bob Whitely and Chris McMillan attempt to stunt in OTS their P-38 and F7F respectively. Both took several states to turn and loop, but they got them to do it after a fashion. In other words, these designs are not to be flown slow or can they do the OTS or Classic pattern. Still were fun to watch. Robin Sizemore did a great job in making them as scale as possible.
Tom
Topic: RSM Robin Sizemore Paul Plecan OTS Classic F-4U Corsair (Read 1285 times)