Roadrunner Flies!

[Tom Niebuhr]

Joe Bowman's "Roadrunner" has flown. Looks great does't it?

[Dwayne]

Man that's a aweet looking plane!!!     
Dwayne

[Lee Thiel]

From what I have seen in the last few years, all of Joe"s planes look great.
Lee TGD

[Elwyn Aud]

I hope he makes it to our fall contest. I want to get this one in front of the camera!

[Ironbomb]

Another work of flying art. Beautiful airplane. I hope I can come close to making mine look like that one day 

Greg

[Larry Cunningham]

Greg,

All it takes is a lot of dedication. And about 100 hours of finishing work.. ;->

There's only ONE thing I see about this kit that I would do differently. Although the wheel pants are
very faithful in their correct shape, the screw holes that hold the halves together are on the
outboard side of the pant. Of course, having a take apart wheel pant is nice (the original ship
never had such), but the screw holes would be less conspicuous on the inboard side..

More of a comment than a criticism, it's really nice to see the wheel pants the correct shape,
which is one of the more artistic aspects of the design, IMO. In fact, both Bill Melton and Jim
Young continued to use that wheel pant shape on many stunt models.

I have a Tulsa Glue Dobber calendar with the August 2006 photo of Jim Young's Impact,
which has these Roadrunner wheel pants!

Again, a beautiful ship, I'm happy to see people exposed to the classic beauty of the
Roadrunner.

L.

"You can take a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead." - Stan Laurel

[Tom Niebuhr]

"There's only ONE thing I see about this kit that I would do differently. Although the wheel pants are
very faithful in their correct shape, the screw holes that hold the halves together are on the outboard side of the pant..."


Larry,

The pants in the kit were 100% true to the original.. this is a unique part of the Roadrunner look.

 Joe added the take apart feature to his airplane, hence the screw holes in the pants.   Repeat.. this is not done in the kit, so, no change to the kit is required.

 Jim Young was excited about the custom kit canopy in the kit. He said that he always hated to have to cut the exact portion of a large hobby shop canopy to get what he wanted. He said the preformed canopy is just right.

Jim was also happy about keeping the landing gear exiting the wing at the original location,yet, being able to make it removable. Again this is part of the RR look.

 Due to limited room in the area, Jim didn't think it could be done. Cad layout made it possible to have a unique, light weight,  and very strong gear mounting. The laser cutting allowed it to be done accurately.

[Larry Cunningham]

Hi Tom,

I took the same liberty on my own Roadrunner to make the gear removable. I also had a
tip weight box, and adjustable leadouts.

Mine was a scratch built ship of course, I have to say that my wheel pants were not as
good as they are here. (My profile shapes are correct, but are rounder than those on Bill's
ships.)

That angular, radical, yet artistic shape is true 'Roadrunner'.. I don't know whether Bill
or Jim actually came up with it, but it holds up to this day.

L.

"Outside of a dog, a book is your best friend, and inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

[Tom Niebuhr]

Larry,

I agree, Joe got the shape correct. The instruction manual in my kit has close up pictures of the RR  that Jim Young had in M.A.N. That helped Joe.

The kit also has the pant segments laser cut to help build them.

Frankly, I have that airplane in my posession, and I have stared at it saying to myself "how did he do that!", because there is so little room for the wheel, etc,

Joe also called me for more details of the cowl inlet, so, I took more pictures of that detail for him.

My hat is off to Joe, because he got it right!

We can also thank Jim Young, for all the help he gave me, so we could get everything for the kit 100% accurate.

BTW, Jim also loved the building options, with the ribs set up for lost foam, rods, or lincoln log jigs.



 

[Leester]

Tom: Do you have these in stock? or are they made to order? I gotta have one it's just to beautiful not to.

[Tom Niebuhr]

Lee,

NEWS: Joe Bowman won the Classic Concours at the todays Dallas contest! I haven't heard any more results, since I had to work today.

I have a Profile RR in stock. I will have to make some more full bodied RRs, but need some firm orders.

I know of at least one more under construction, of the kits that have already been shipped. (see www.blueskymodels.net photo gallery)

I will send a private e-mail to you also,

[Richard Grogan]

Tom,
How much for the full bodied RR kit when you get enough orders?

[Ironbomb]

The subject title is misleading. "Roadrunner Flies" implies that a pic of the Roadrunner in the air is posted. So please post a pic of this beauty in the air as soon as possible.

Thank you!   

 

Greg 

[Tom Niebuhr]

Richard: See e-mail I sent to you.

Greg, Hopefully Elwyn Aud will take some air shots in Tulsa.

[Ironbomb]

Richard: See e-mail I sent to you.

Greg, Hopefully Elwyn Aud will take some air shots in Tulsa.

Happiness,  , I can wait.    I'll be watching......

Greg

[Tom Niebuhr]

Greg,

Dave Grussen has posted some great air shots of the RR in the "1st" thread, and other airshots in the Dallas contest report.