Ever since I was a kid in the 50's-60's, I heard of training pilots with a T-6 Texan. Since it seems to be an excellant full scale plane to train pilots with, I assume it must have excellent flight characteristics.
There now seems to be an interest in scale models either flown in fun scale or scale and some adapted for stunt.
Has there ever been a C/L model of this plane?

Air Trails, Jan 50, has a construction article for the T-6 by the master, S. Calhoun Smith. 1" = 1', 42 inch span, 232 sq in.  It is scale.  The plans show a symmetrical airfoil along with a scale airfoil.  Complete scale marking details for an Air Force version are provided with the plans.  Smith claims that loops and eights are possible.  Scale OTS anyone?

That design is from the era where the put huge engines on small comparitively small CL airplanes.  The article recommends an engine from .32 to .60.  For that size of an airplane, a .15 would work if kept light.  A .25 on a light airplane would be a comfortable perfoming airplane.  (232 sq in is the size of a good 1/2A stunt ship at 11 oz these days.)

Plans are available from the AMA plans service.  A copy of the article is available from the AMA museum.

Keith Trostle

Air Trails, Jan 50, has a construction article for the T-6 by the master, S. Calhoun Smith. 1" = 1', 42 inch span, 232 sq in.  It is scale.  The plans show a symmetrical airfoil along with a scale airfoil.  Complete scale marking details for an Air Force version are provided with the plans.  Smith claims that loops and eights are possible.  Scale OTS anyone?

That design is from the era where the put huge engines on small comparitively small CL airplanes.  The article recommends an engine from .32 to .60.  For that size of an airplane, a .15 would work if kept light.  A .25 on a light airplane would be a comfortable perfoming airplane.  (232 sq in is the size of a good 1/2A stunt ship at 11 oz these days.)

Plans are available from the AMA plans service.  A copy of the article is available from the AMA museum.

Keith Trostle

Hi Keith,

With a symmetrical airfoil shown on the plans, that makes it OTS legal and a perfect candidate for Uncle Mikey's "Scale Stunter" Award at VSC!

Heck, I would STILL put a Brodak 25 in it.!

Hi Keith,

With a symmetrical airfoil shown on the plans, that makes it OTS legal and a perfect candidate for Uncle Mikey's "Scale Stunter" Award at VSC!

Heck, I would STILL put a Brodak 25 in it.!

Bill,
To keep the total weight down to the point of it actually being able to compete, it must have the 15. If it weighs more than 20 oz it's pretty much too heavy. Maybe 22 oz. (My Tigercat was just built too heavily. To do it again I would use a lot less wood, lost foam technique on everything, including fuse/nacelles with molded skins of 1/16th, etc. It needed a minimum of 10 oz less weight, 34 oz total, to fly the OTS pattern.)
That is my philosophy on my new Calhoun Smith entry for OTS at VSC (which is 200 sq's). With small ships the weight is killer, and the drag is too. I'll use .012's on it and the horn and bellcrank will be really light, 2/56 screws (seven of them), electric spinner, ElectraLite wheels, tail skid, etc. Draconian measures on the construction, Al Rabe techniques (molded fuse, light nose), Dick Mathis techniques (limited glue), Keith Trostle techniques (monocoque molded sheet stab and fin). Paint it like a rubber-powered model.
Why do I do this!
Chris...

Bill,
To keep the total weight down to the point of it actually being able to compete, it must have the 15. If it weighs more than 20 oz it's pretty much too heavy. Maybe 22 oz. (My Tigercat was just built too heavily. To do it again I would use a lot less wood, lost foam technique on everything, including fuse/nacelles with molded skins of 1/16th, etc. It needed a minimum of 10 oz less weight, 34 oz total, to fly the OTS pattern.)
That is my philosophy on my new Calhoun Smith entry for OTS at VSC (which is 200 sq's). With small ships the weight is killer, and the drag is too. I'll use .012's on it and the horn and bellcrank will be really light, 2/56 screws (seven of them), electric spinner, ElectraLite wheels, tail skid, etc. Draconian measures on the construction, Al Rabe techniques (molded fuse, light nose), Dick Mathis techniques (limited glue), Keith Trostle techniques (monocoque molded sheet stab and fin). Paint it like a rubber-powered model.
Why do I do this!
Chris...

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.  I believe we have been guilty for decades of over building our strunt planes.  So I understnd your theories on keeping weight down. 

When the time comes that I will finally be able to attend VSC, I hope Uncle Mikey is still having the "Scale Stunter" award!  2010 looks like the first available date for me......

On the full-scale plane, what is the difference between a T-6 Texan and an AT-6?

Dave

None that i have ever heard of, but I could be wrong.

"A"T  was a designation for "A"dvanced Trainer at one time I understand.

T = Trainer

A = Attack

When you put weapons on trainer it becomes an Attack Trainer, as in the AT-37 Dragonfly and the AT-28 Trojan.

Same-same for Cargo, as in AC-130 Spectre.

-------------------------

ps:

Like a lot of other airplanes the T-6 straddled 1947, and had old Army Air Corps numbers and also modern US Air Force nomenclature'.   "AT" did, in fact mean Advanced Trainer in prehistoric times.

The modern planes have the red stripe in the insignia and the ancient ones have the plane blue & white wings.

Thanks for the AT-6 info.  My grandfather's brother was a stunt pilot in the 1940s, and flew an AT-6.  I was thinking of building a C/L scale model sometime.

Dave

 Theres a possibility a profile might wweigh a bit less and fly real well.

I have plans for a scale t-6 - let me know if you are interested and I can e-mail them to you