This is what I mean about the dime store , all balsa slide together airplanes Guillows has three or four in different sizes. By themselves, they ain't much. But add in some polyhedral on the wings, a better prop, and better rubber and they can really go!! i think the single biggest thing holding any of them back is the props. Guillows props are just TERRIBLE!! They just don't provide any real thrust. Sand them down thinner and play with curvature on the blades is an option. Or cut off the blades but leave a short stump, then attach home made blades made from plastic containers and such. Almost anything works better.
By the mid 1960's, those lighter weight Guillow dime flyers were no longer available.
Comet had a series of airplanes that was their cheapest kits of the mid 1960's, planes with 15" wingspan Ryan low wing cabin, Bellanca Jr., Porterfield 65, Curtiss Robin, and two peanut scale 12" wingspan Spad and Fokker DVII biplanes, cost $0.69 each. I built many of them because they were so cheap. But they came with a diminuitive 3.5" prop that was the same width as half-A glow props, barely produced any thrust.
The Guillow red 4.5" props that came on their cheapest ROG ready to flies and lower end kits, those red props with rounded blunt tips were a far better prop than the Comet ones. At least they provided decent thrust.
Later, a bit older, (started building balsa stick and tissue around 10 YO), found that those airplanes, which seemed to be framed heavy would fly decently if I really worked down the half-inch wide trailing edge (stock was 1/8x1/2) to almost a point at the tip and made a triangle instead of barely tapered and rounded end, better airfoiling the wing leading edge. Just that shaved quite a bit off the weight. (Some later modellers lightened even further by making trailing edge 1/16x1/8, eliminating 1/16 square paralleling split in half at the spar wing ribs, made ribs with notch for spar.)
Better building practices and the smallest Guillow props made these decent fliers. Best flier was Comet's 18" P-51 A or B turtle deck. It was framed light, flew well. Guillow on the other hand were framed like a balsa lumber yard. Unless one went to contest grade lighter balsa, their planes glided like a rock, fast glides and didn't do to well because of weight in hard landings.
Topic: Question about Rubber Powered Models (Read 2642 times)