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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0608.PDF
MARCH 5, 193&. FLIGHT. 267 A detachable " motor stick " or torque rod, takes the rubber load in the type of mono plane which holds the Wakefield Cup. Interesting Features of the American Design Which Holds the Wakefield Cup : News of Some K Petits Poux" By M. R. KNIGHT A "Motor Stick" Model NOW that interest is centred on the British plans to retrieve the vVakefield Cup from American custody, it is atting that the model to be described this month should be the one which was responsible for the Cup leaving these shores. The 1935 contest was flown at Fairey's Great West Aerodrome o n August 5, and was won for America by Mr. (ionIon S. Light's high-wing cabin monoplane. It actually landed on Hanworth Aerodrome, several miles distant, after a (light of about 2 hours 20 minutes, for most of which period it was soaring. Owing to the fact that the rules forbid the time keepers to move from the launching point or to use binoculars, the winning flight was officially logged as ji minutes "out of sight." fiie model is typically American in structure and appear ance. The wing is mounted very high above the thrust-line, the fuselage being considerably humped to secure this placing. Another distinguishing feature is the following of the American system of using a removable " motor stick " or " torque rod " to take the strain of the rubber motor, instead of allowing it to be borne by the fuselage structure, as is now the British practice. This motor stick is actually a hollow spar con structed of four strips of balsa f in. X -rV m-> plugged at in tervals to enable it to withstand constant handling. It is permanently coupled to the removable nose-block, both being withdrawn from the fuselage for the purposes of fitting and winding the rubber. Of 39! in. span, the one-piece cantilever wing has a constant chord of 5| in. The dihedral angle is 8 degrees. The lower surface is slightly concave. The eighteen ribs and four spars are of balsa, and the curved wing-tips of ^ in. X -& in. bamboo. The covering material is thin Jap tissue, given one coat of clear dope. The fuselage is circular in section from the nose-block to the wing, being built of ^ in. balsa veneer glued around a series of bamboo rings. From the wing leading edge to the sternpost the section is rectangular, with four longerons of I hi. x J in. balsa. It is covered with Jap tissue, clear doped, with the exception of the cabin, which is covered with cellophane. This cabin idea is utilitarian as well as orna mental, enabling the user to fit the rear end of the motor stick accurately in the securing clip instead of pushing it through MODELS the sides of the fuselage. The undercarriage consists of 2 in. balsa wheels, carried by bamboo legs which push into tubes of rolled and glued cartridge paper secured in the fuselage. Built similarly to the wing, the tail plane has the same con cave under-surface. The span is 20 in. and the chord 4 in. The unusual height of the fin is accounted for by the fact that it is identical with one half of the high-aspect-ratio tail plane, the only difference being that the section is symmetrical. The airscrew is carved from balsa, and the blades are very wide and almost symmetrical in shape. They are rather thin, and are strengthened by having doped Jap tissue glued over the convex side. The diameter is 17 in. The motor consists of twenty strands of J in. flat rubber. A simple free-wheel device serves to reduce resistance when the model is gliding. Our sketch is made from a replica of the original model, kindly loaned by Mr. II. York, of Model Aircraft Supplies, Ltd. Incidentally, the fund (referred to in Flight of February 0) for sending a team to America in an endeavour to retrieve the Wakefield Cup has now reached a total of ^241 3s., with another £55 13s. promised. Lord Wakefield, it will be remem bered, inaugurated the list with a donation of ^200. Further contributions, large and small, will be gratefully received by Dr. A. P. Thurston, M.I.M.E., F.R.Ae.S., at Bank Chambers, 329, High Holborn, London, W.C.i. Three More "Poux" THE description published in Flight of December 12, 1935, of Mr. L. H. Sparey's 30 in. span Pou-du-Ciel has brought an interesting letter from Los Angeles. Mr. Kenneth W. Hamilton sends a description of his singularly accurate flying scale model of the Carden-engined Abbott-Baynes POM, which he believes to be the first scate Pou to be built and flown in Two views of a model Pou-dn-Cid built by an American enthusiast, Mr. K. W. Hamilton, as described above.
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