Author Topic: TIPSY JR. (Read 1122 times)

FLOYD CARTER · « **on:** February 12, 2014, 02:21:47 PM »

The Tipsy Jr. is an interesting design. This one is for C/L stunt, but is also very nearly scale. Power is an OS 40FP. Paint on mine is not authentic, but registration numbers are authentic. Covered in silk.

The Tipsy Jr. was manufactured by Avions in France in the mid-40s, although it looks older. Intended as a small personal lightplane. Only two were built, with Belgian registrations OO-ULA and OO-TIT. Original engines were the Micron and Cirrus 4-cylinder. I guess it was a failure for some unknown reason.

Proportions seem ideal for C/L... both stunt and scale! I dragged this one from the attic to fly in the 2014 Northwest Regionals. But, now that the Regionals has been cut back (no scale event) I guess it will serve as a stunter!

Floyd

Trostle · « **Reply #1 on:** February 12, 2014, 09:11:53 PM »

Quote from: FLOYD CARTER on February 12, 2014, 02:21:47 PM

The Tipsy Jr. is an interesting design.

Proportions seem ideal for C/L... both stunt and scale!

Floyd

Indeed the Tipsy Jr. is an interesting design. You and I have discussed this before and you have sent me a copy of the plans for your version.

Aeromodeller, March 1949 published 3-Views and a short article/description on the plane. Hopefully the attachment will show the 3-views. Also, Aeromodeller published a small CL version , 28" span, in the June 1949 issue. The designer took some "liberties" with the wing airfoil, showing a near flat bottom. Woody Blanchard, a several time Nats overall champion from the 50's, published plans of his CL Scale version he flew at the Nats to help him win that overall championship several times, Model Airplane News, November 1952. This model has similar numbers (areas and moments) to the Harry Williamson Gyrator which holds its own quite well in top level OTS competition. The Blanchard Tipsy has a nice symmetrical airfoil and a wing mounted gear which, like the Gyrator is a definite plus for a good landing score, unlike many OTS designs. This one has been on my bucket list for a while but got moved down when the Big Job came around and my plans now for the next OTS airplane is the large Madman. But, with a scale color scheme as described in the Aeromodeller 3-view article, this would be a delightfull airplane to fly in the Sport Scale event because it would be fully capable of flying the OTS pattern.

From that Aeromodeller 3-view feature showing DO-TIT registration:

"Colour. Primrose yellow all over, aluminium rudder and tailplane and portions of wing aft of front spar. Blue registration letters and flash."

Interesting.

Keith

FLOYD CARTER · « **Reply #2 on:** February 14, 2014, 10:50:48 AM »

Exactly. The photos I have for the Tipsy Jr. (both were re-built several times with varying color schemes) all show really uninteresting paint jobs. That may discourage anyone from building an accurate scale model.

My own Tipsy was built as a stunter, so I chose an original color scheme. It would not get many points for paint authenticity.

Thinking about the apparent failure of the Tipsy Jr. to "catch on", I suspect Fairey Avions stopped production because the plane was all-wood, and labor-intensive. This at a time when Cessna, Piper, and others were building from all-aluminum, thus reducing manufacturing costs. I haven't researched this, but I wonder if the plans were made available for home-builders--since wood construction would appeal to amateur builders.

Floyd

Author Topic: TIPSY JR. (Read 1122 times)

FLOYD CARTER

TIPSY JR.

Trostle

Re: TIPSY JR.

FLOYD CARTER

Re: TIPSY JR.