1/2A scale

[Gary Dowler]

Curiosity has me.   What  is the largest 1/2A scale plane anyone has run across? Biggest twin? Any large 4 engine?  Just must have 1/2A power

Gary

[Trostle]

For several years, there was a 1/2A Scale Multi-Engine Profile Scale contest held in Tuscon.  A number of seldom modeled airplanes showed up.  There were two categories - Limited for no throttles and Unlimited for throttles.  This was the brain child of Mike Keville, the creator of VSC.  This 1/2A event was covered by the magazines, notably the scale column in Model Aviation by Fred Cronenwelt as well as Flying Models by Alan Brickhause, Stunt News and Control Line World.  Engines were limited to 1 cc or 0.061 cu. in.

Alan sent a Do 335 that was proxy flown at one of those events.

Several 3-engined models showed up over the years.

There was a 4-engined Republic XF-12 Rainbow that had four Cox 0.010 engines.  It was not very big with a span of about 39".

There were at least two 4-engine models.  One was a B-24 as well as the Russian Tupolev Tu-95.  The Tu-95 had a wing span of about 58" and was 52" long.

Keith

[John Rist]

I had a successful DO-335.

[Fredvon4]

I can't find the video but recently saw a u tube of a very flimsy long wing span with over a dozen engines being launched...not c/l...pretty sure free flight....I am thinking a 10 foot span and the entire wing was very flimsy oscillating like a wave as it ascends in flight

[Gary Dowler]

That's some cool stuff so far!!  John, I love the Do-335!  how did it fly?   Also curious how that Tu-95
 did.

Gary

[Fred Cronenwett]

Ron Duly from California has a 5 engine He-111Z (glider tug). that takes a coordinated effort to start all of the motors and keep the tanks full as the other motors are started.

[Dave Hull]

And at the last 1/2A event that Tony Naccarato sponsored (2017), he flew his Cox powered B-36 monster. There is a video of the flight taken by Tony Accurso. One also of Ron Duly's zwilling. At our recent VCB 1/2A gathering, Dave Braun  brought many scale planes (including a Batmobile, which I flew last year) but the two standouts were a pair of large-ish twins. I'll have to try to remember what they actually were. One was a swept wing canard that looked challenging to fly....

Video  (B-36 and Zwilling shown at 2:52)
     


Here's the B-36 flight
     


Here's the He-111Z Zwilling flight
     


Then, of course, there is the nine Cox engine powered "sorta F-82" by Terry Aldrich that was on the cover of American Modeler in April of 1967. Wingspan was stated as 82" with a total weight of 5-1/4 lbs (84 oz.).  Utube doesn't go back that far, so you'll just have to use your imagination on that one.


Dave
Valley Circle Burners, Los Angeles

[Paul Wescott]

...At our recent VCB 1/2A gathering, Dave Braun  brought many scale planes (including a Batmobile, which I flew last year) but the two standouts were a pair of large-ish twins. I'll have to try to remember what they actually were. One was a swept wing canard that looked challenging to fly....

Dave
Valley Circle Burners, Los Angeles

In support of Dave Hull’s comprehensive late-Sunday-Night reply, I will attempt to attach pics of Dave Braun’s models.  I didn’t know they were Dave’s.  In fact I only remember the canard, and Bill Barber’s B-25.

#1 Dave Braun’s Whatzit Canard (twin)
#2 Dave Braun’s Westland Wyvern (twin)
#3 It’s Gray, I don’t know what it is (twin)
#4 Bill Barber’s B-25 (twin)
#5 5-engine Star Wars X-wing (not really, four are fake)
#6 Ron Duly’s Zwilling Tug (5 engine monster)
#7 Dave Braun’s McCutcheon Machine (does it really count as a twin?)

It is an incredible pain in the posterior to crop, and resize, and calculate whether they total 1000K!!!
I’ve said it before (but i forgot) I’m not doing photos anymore.

There’s a very interesting story behind that Zwilling involving Wild Bill Netzeband...

Paul W.

[John Rist]

That's some cool stuff so far!!  John, I love the Do-335!  how did it fly? 

Gary

Like a lot of scale ships it is a lead sled.  However  with two good engine running it flew great.  Interestingly when the front engine quit she would land with the back engine running.  Without the front prop wash the back engine would over heat ans slow down and finally quit giving a scale landing, taxi, and engine shutoff. 

[Elwyn Aud]

Doc Holliday had a P-61 at a fun fly in Neosho, MO some years back. If I remember correctly it had trouble taking off from the grass and made it into the air with a hand launch.

[Elwyn Aud]

Not C/L but impressive. Spruce Goose built by Daniel Walton around 1996. Eight Cox .010's. 1/48 scale

[L0U CRANE]

Paul, to your post #7:

That "whatzit" aircraft did have a name  - Libellula, Miles M.39B. Brit designer/builder George Miles made several unusual and interesting prototypes early in WW2.

The M.39B was a 5/8 size prototype for an intended 100% version - which was never built. The idea went no further. He called it a tandem wing, not canard design.  It did fly, with  a pair of inverted 130 HP Gypsy Major engines. Fuselage was molded all-wooden monocoque with plywood and fabric covering. Retractable trike gear! The brief report I have says it flew well, and could tolerate a greater range of CG position than 'normal' or canard layouts.

About then, Miles also designed a lightweight all-wooden fighter - the M.20? The Luftwaffe air siege of England inspired him to try to make more RAF fighters quickly available for the Battle of Britain emergency. The M.20 prototype was quickly developed, and just about ready to test as Hawker and Supermarine began pumping out Hurricanes and Spitfires in great numbers. An M.20-type alternate was no longer crucially needed. On a 1000HP Merlin, with 8 or 10 30caliber machine guns, it might really have been something.  It was based in considerable part on Miles' Messenger(or Magister?), an RAF trainer made in large numbers.

I'm fascinated by that era, and George Miles made very interesting contributions to it!