Wow! Was I ever that young? Did I ever have that much hair?
Thanks for posting that photo AM. There is an interesting story about that model, and I wrote it up into one of the chapters in my Genesis Saga book that I've been working on for several years. I'll post a bit of that here...
Excerpt from Genesis Saga book text:
I jumped back to the jet camp again, and designed a stunter around the lines of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief in early 1970. I didn’t build that model right away, however. I thought that the large drop tanks I had drawn would induce too much drag, and so I shelved the design for a while.
Vic Macaluso had designed a very striking semi-scale version of the Crusader around that time that featured anhedral in the wing. None of us thought that it would fly like that, but Vic had the last laugh by coming up with a model that eventually won almost every contest on the East Coast in 1970.
Vic’s jet had many relief details on the fuselage in the form of fairings and scoops. It also had a set of very realistic drop tanks that were fitted to pylons that were attached to the wing. Very original and very impressive was the Crusader. Even more amazing was the fact that Vic built and finished this gorgeous model in but eight weeks!
I had always liked the side-view shape of the F-105 Thunderchief, but initially discarded it because the head of the model engine would stick down from the slim nose and spoil the jet look. The Sabre Jet configuration was a natural for hiding the engine and I suppose that is why so many of them have been designed as semi-scale stunters over the years.
The Thunderchief would also have to be built as an in-line design. The engine thrust line, wing centerline and tail centerline were all on the same line! I had heard that this configuration might cause problems, especially with the vertical center of gravity. Add to that the fact that this model would have tricycle landing gear and simulated drop tanks, and the potential vertical CG problem loomed even larger.
Naturally, with all those negatives going for this design, I decided to go ahead and build it anyway! Hey, sometimes a good-looking design just has to be tried in spite of the logic of physics... Did it work? You bet! The “Thud” turned out to be a really great flying model that turned equally upright and inverted. In fact, the model flew decidedly better with the
removable drop tanks attached! I think the extra drag allowed me to power-up the OS Max H40S a bit more than normal and have something to “pull” against. Whatever the reasons, that model flew very nicely indeed and it carried me to that elusive first win in the Open class, against worthy competition.
The Chipmunk wing had proven to be a great choice for the slightly larger models that we were all starting to build to accept the more powerful and slightly heavier .40 size engines that were beginning to become avail- able. Instead of making the whole wing larger in span and chord for the F-105, I decided to go for a more high-aspect ratio look and simply extend the span while keeping the stock root and tip chord dimensions. I really liked the high-aspect look, and I fully intend to re-visit it very soon with a new model design.
The Thunderchief was my first published design. I was invited to fly it in a modeling demonstration in Nyack, New York in the fall of 1971, and the legendary model magazine editor, Don McGovern was in attendance. He just loved that model, and he asked me if I would like to have it appear in Flying Models magazine. I quickly accepted his offer, and spent the rest of that fall preparing the article and inking the plans.
Around Christmas in 1971 the article package was ready for Don’s perusal and he invited me to his home in Centereach, Long Island just two days before I was scheduled to leave for the 1972 King Orange Internationals meet in Florida. I was really nervous about meeting with this modeling legend in his home one-on-one. I was even more nervous that he would say my work was not up to magazine standards. I was just a wreck as I made the long trek out onto the “Island.”
As it turned out, Don really liked the article package and we went out to a local field to get a few photos of the model. Don had told me when he purchased the article that I could not depict a foam wing on the plan. At that time there were not too many foam wing stunt models being built, and there were really only two commercial foam wing cutters that specialized in cutting CL Stunt wings (Foam-Flite and my newly formed Control Line Specialties Company). Don wanted to be certain that this model could be constructed in the normal manner as well as with a foam core wing. I wasn’t even sure that the built-up wing I drew on the plans would go together correctly!
I had thought up a really neat fixture that incorporated two pieces of 1⁄4 -inch thick balsa that would serve as the actual leading and trailing edges. They were to have a piece of 1/8-inch square balsa glued at a point that would pick-up the center of the ribs, which in turn were to have 1/8-inch notches cut accurately at the front and rear. The 1⁄4-inch balsa pieces extended down to the bench top and when assembled the wing was suspended between them. Sort of like the Lincoln-Log method that Tom Morris came up with years later, only the fixture pieces were trimmed to be the actual leading and trailing edges after the wing was constructed.
Fortunately I found out that the wing depicted on the plans was easy to build and turned out warp free. Several modelers have built that design with that wing. Today I’d opt for the Lost-Foam system to build this wing, and I recently received a photo of a Thunderchief that Ed Capitanelli built that way. It’s gorgeous - just like all of Ed’s work!
The Thud placed in or won many contests over its two-year life span, and then it bit the dust in a most embarrassing way. In March of 1973 I attended the annual spring meet in Warminster, Pennsylvania at the Johnstown Naval Research Facility (that’s where the centrifuge that was used for Astronaut training was located!). That contest had become known for very bad weather conditions, but I wanted to go anyway. Billy Simons tagged along, but he warned me that it was going to be very windy at the contest site. To say that he was correct in that assumption would be a monumental understatement! But, hey, we were there and there was a contest.
Billy opted to leave his brand new Gambit (A ship also built around those “Secret Moments” that Gene had pioneered) safely in the car. I wasn’t that smart. I decided to enter and fly. Bill tried very hard to talk me out of that decision. As I wrote earlier, Bill Simons was always the voice of reason...
The wind was blowing a constant 18 to 20 mph. And it was a cold wind; the type that has real “push” to it. I fired up the OS .40H and took off on what would quickly become the farewell journey for the Thunderchief. It was so windy that the increased line tension downwind forced me to use both hands on the handle through maneuvers. Try that sometime. Any- way, I managed to make it safely all the way to the inside square loops. The Thunderchief was rocketing through the maneuver and was pulling like a freight train at the pull out point. On the downward portion of the second inside square the up line snapped. With such incredible line pull the model was fed full down control instantly, as the model was now being tethered by only one line. The result was the most amazing outside corner you ever saw, but, albeit, at only five foot altitude. The result was predictable; the model hit the ground hard at about a 45 degree angle. Did I mention that it hit hard?
As I think back on it now, like during any catastrophe, time went into a sort of warp, and all of it seemed to be happening in ultra slow motion. Just after the airplane hit the asphalt and disintegrated, all the pieces “bounced” up into the air as if straining to erase what had just happened. I vividly remember that all the pieces were in relatively the right orientation, only they were several feet apart. The result was a momentary image of this surreal model that was flying but not connected part-to-part. It was one of the most eerie moments in my life. Still is to this day.
As if the crash and loss of my best model (my only model really...) was not bad enough, I now had to face one Bill Simons who was in full “I told you so, Dummy” mode. I was scolded good and proper, and he really never did let me forget that day.
Alas, I reconciled that I would have to go home and get to work on a new ship right away. I was heading for my car when a youngster ran up to me and asked if I was the flier who crashed the model. “Yes, that was me,” I answered, and then he held out his hand which contained the badly bent remains of the rear cone section of the 2-inch diameter Veco Needle Nose spinner and asked, “Do you know where the front part of this is?” At that point I wanted to cry. (end)
Hopefully I'll get the chance to finish that book soon and have it available. Its really loooooong!
Just a bit more about the "Thud." The first flights were very depressing; it just didn't fly well at all. As noted in the story above I flew it first without the drop tanks attached. I had pretty much decided it was going to be a hangar queen and dress up my shop wall. I decided to screw the drop tanks to the permanent pylons (which in retrospect probably did act as "fences.") I really wanted to see how the model looked in the air with them in place. The model turned from a dud (...a Thud Dud?) into a machine. The transformation was amazing, and that ship still ranks in my mind as one of my best. Just imagine if I had retired it without trying it with the drop tanks in place. That episode has always had me thinking about putting fences or other do-dads onto the wing of a stunter to manage air flow. Not being even remotely an aerodynamic expert, anything I put on the model would be a shot in the dark. But, I am finally going ahead with that thought with my new Genesis Extreme LC (Last Chapter). It has receptacles that will accept various fences/turbulators/do dads. We'll see if there is something there...
Later - Bob Hunt
Topic: wingtip shapes (Read 4212 times)