As many of you are aware, Wilsonman, here on the forum, has just closed the design phase of the FTFF 2017 International Air races, a competition to build scale "golden era racers" then race them in both a speed and endurance competition. If you haven't seen the build threads, do yourself a favor and go have a look 
For the endurance competition, I've been chatting with Wilsonman offline, and we've hashed out a variant of All-up-last-down:
- Everyone takes off roughly the same time with the same sized battery pack
- Pilots fly the track at their own pace
- After the first lap is completed by the lead plane, a pace plane launches and flies the track at a reasonable pace
+ If you get "passed" by the pace plane or "land", you're "Down".
+ last competitor down, wins.
Looking over these rules and the plane I had chosen, seemed poetic justice to make it the pace plane. So I have entitled this build . . .
The March of Progress
History:
The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress was a biplane that arrived on the scene about 4 decades late to rub shoulders with the "golden era racers", but the race heat she arrived in was becoming stagnant. Sporting some modern design concepts and a composite Aluminum skin/EPS core wing (yup, she's a foamy!) she not only performed top of her class, it's been argued the rules were changed at least twice to dull her overwhelming competitive edge. Despite the changes, she still won 3 first place in her class (crossed the finish first 5 times, but twice was bumped to last by the rules), 4 second place finishes and one third. Not a bad showing for a pretty girl like her over a 13 year career. Overall, Lee Mahoney designed a game changing airframe, and between he, Don Beck and Paul Deschamps, her advantages were clear enough to earn some coveted hangar space in the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum.
Noteworthy plane with beautiful lines.
Research:
She's also a fairly rare model, but not unique. Just this past year, Lockey over at RCG ran through the design in roughly 1/4 scale (at 16' span, she's not a big plane), and did a fine job of it. It's my understanding a cutout of the kit is available at "Hoosier Cutout Service", or you can contact Lockey directly for the plans. While this project will be a new build from the 3-views up, I can't say I won't recycle ideas from those who've gone before
Otherwise, there are a few pics around from various scratchbuilds, but no other plan sets or kits I'm aware of. Rare, but not unique.
Plans:
So this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. My design goals are:
- Build out a 1/6 "fun scale" Sorceress with details
- Altered to improve flight handling
- Repeatable plans for an high-intermediate/low-advanced builder primarily using common techniques
- Reasonable flight speed with capacity for a larger battery (I have no race battery limits)
- Demo-platform for some simple composite techniques
- Detachable wings for transport
- Capable of pace-setting for the Bixler Trophy contest.
Not a lot different than the standard build-off racer, with minor tweeks . . . but there are a few things this project is not:
- Designed to be easy enough that a beginner can build and/or fly
- Designed to be the fastest plane in the air
- Designed to be the most efficient plane in the air (seriously, I'm planning ahead to carry a bigger battery )
- Repeatedly built to prove repeatability.
This isn't a typical FT-style design, and it's not being built to win, it's begin built to set a pace for a reasonably long period of time.
To unpack all that just a little . . . this all flows around two things I want form this plane -- build a sorceress for me to fly ( ) and demonstrate a simple composite molding technique.
As we get closer to it, I'll step through how to inexpensively build a molded foam/carbon spar in a one-time mold using simple materials you have on hand (ok, you have to mail-order the carbon, but most everybody has to mail order their electronics anyways ). For the purpose, it's probably overkill, and I'll show off some alternate techniques while I'm at it, but this is a chance to de-scary-fy composites.
I do see some significant engineering challenges coming, many of which, I have solutions, some I'm still stewing on:
- Wings: This is the core of aerodynamic design. There's a lot that TLAR can get you out of an airfoil, but if you truly want to create a high performance airframe, this shouldn't be ignored . . . In fairness, I'm not trying to make a high performance airframe, but I do want well behaved. Overall design is square-stagger-gull-with-constant-cord-symmetrical-airfoil . . . not the most stable of combos, but she is a racer. I plan on doing a bit more research before I lock in the airfoil . . .
- Spar: this is where the carbon comes in . . . but how to build it detachable? At 1/6 scale, 16' span becomes 32" , but it's a long ride to Ohio . . . More to come on that.
- Tail Feathers: Did I mention short coupled? The full-scale Sorceress routed the engine exhaust across the rudder to increase it's authority while keeping the size (and drag) down. I'll have scale exhaust ports, and might even use them to route cooling air, but I won't pretend to believe I'll get that advantage -- the tail will need to grow.
- Ailerons: located in the upper wing . . . but where to mount the servos? in the wing? route pushrods through to the fuse? still on the fence, but I might be picking up some more very thin servos.
- Battery bay: Did I mention I wanted a big one? I did? well . . . now I've got to fit one in . . . or two . . . we'll see.
- Landing gear: fixed or spring? it's own aluminum mount or tied into the wing? tail wheel? Might need to go one club over to use their plastic landing strip.
- Skin: Planning on mylar tape . . . but that's a lot of covering. If it's worth doing . . .
Well, that's enough to open the thread. Hopefully I'll get a chance to pull it up in sketchup and start the basic structure and layout . . . while I finish my current build (good gravy, I haven't touched it in almost a month!) . . . and build a trailer . . . and build a DLG pod . . . and . . . well, it's going to be a busy build season
For the endurance competition, I've been chatting with Wilsonman offline, and we've hashed out a variant of All-up-last-down:
- Everyone takes off roughly the same time with the same sized battery pack
- Pilots fly the track at their own pace
- After the first lap is completed by the lead plane, a pace plane launches and flies the track at a reasonable pace
+ If you get "passed" by the pace plane or "land", you're "Down".
+ last competitor down, wins.
Looking over these rules and the plane I had chosen, seemed poetic justice to make it the pace plane. So I have entitled this build . . .
The March of Progress
History:
The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress was a biplane that arrived on the scene about 4 decades late to rub shoulders with the "golden era racers", but the race heat she arrived in was becoming stagnant. Sporting some modern design concepts and a composite Aluminum skin/EPS core wing (yup, she's a foamy!) she not only performed top of her class, it's been argued the rules were changed at least twice to dull her overwhelming competitive edge. Despite the changes, she still won 3 first place in her class (crossed the finish first 5 times, but twice was bumped to last by the rules), 4 second place finishes and one third. Not a bad showing for a pretty girl like her over a 13 year career. Overall, Lee Mahoney designed a game changing airframe, and between he, Don Beck and Paul Deschamps, her advantages were clear enough to earn some coveted hangar space in the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum.
Noteworthy plane with beautiful lines.
Research:
She's also a fairly rare model, but not unique. Just this past year, Lockey over at RCG ran through the design in roughly 1/4 scale (at 16' span, she's not a big plane), and did a fine job of it. It's my understanding a cutout of the kit is available at "Hoosier Cutout Service", or you can contact Lockey directly for the plans. While this project will be a new build from the 3-views up, I can't say I won't recycle ideas from those who've gone before
Otherwise, there are a few pics around from various scratchbuilds, but no other plan sets or kits I'm aware of. Rare, but not unique.
Plans:
So this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. My design goals are:
- Build out a 1/6 "fun scale" Sorceress with details
- Altered to improve flight handling
- Repeatable plans for an high-intermediate/low-advanced builder primarily using common techniques
- Reasonable flight speed with capacity for a larger battery (I have no race battery limits)
- Demo-platform for some simple composite techniques
- Detachable wings for transport
- Capable of pace-setting for the Bixler Trophy contest.
Not a lot different than the standard build-off racer, with minor tweeks . . . but there are a few things this project is not:
- Designed to be easy enough that a beginner can build and/or fly
- Designed to be the fastest plane in the air
- Designed to be the most efficient plane in the air (seriously, I'm planning ahead to carry a bigger battery
)- Repeatedly built to prove repeatability.
This isn't a typical FT-style design, and it's not being built to win, it's begin built to set a pace for a reasonably long period of time.
To unpack all that just a little . . . this all flows around two things I want form this plane -- build a sorceress for me to fly (
) and demonstrate a simple composite molding technique. As we get closer to it, I'll step through how to inexpensively build a molded foam/carbon spar in a one-time mold using simple materials you have on hand (ok, you have to mail-order the carbon, but most everybody has to mail order their electronics anyways
). For the purpose, it's probably overkill, and I'll show off some alternate techniques while I'm at it, but this is a chance to de-scary-fy composites.I do see some significant engineering challenges coming, many of which, I have solutions, some I'm still stewing on:
- Wings: This is the core of aerodynamic design. There's a lot that TLAR can get you out of an airfoil, but if you truly want to create a high performance airframe, this shouldn't be ignored . . . In fairness, I'm not trying to make a high performance airframe, but I do want well behaved. Overall design is square-stagger-gull-with-constant-cord-symmetrical-airfoil . . . not the most stable of combos, but she is a racer. I plan on doing a bit more research before I lock in the airfoil . . .
- Spar: this is where the carbon comes in . . . but how to build it detachable? At 1/6 scale, 16' span becomes 32" , but it's a long ride to Ohio . . . More to come on that.
- Tail Feathers: Did I mention short coupled? The full-scale Sorceress routed the engine exhaust across the rudder to increase it's authority while keeping the size (and drag) down. I'll have scale exhaust ports, and might even use them to route cooling air, but I won't pretend to believe I'll get that advantage -- the tail will need to grow.
- Ailerons: located in the upper wing . . . but where to mount the servos? in the wing? route pushrods through to the fuse? still on the fence, but I might be picking up some more very thin servos.
- Battery bay: Did I mention I wanted a big one? I did? well . . . now I've got to fit one in . . . or two . . . we'll see.
- Landing gear: fixed or spring? it's own aluminum mount or tied into the wing? tail wheel? Might need to go one club over to use their plastic landing strip.
- Skin: Planning on mylar tape . . . but that's a lot of covering. If it's worth doing . . .
Well, that's enough to open the thread. Hopefully I'll get a chance to pull it up in sketchup and start the basic structure and layout . . . while I finish my current build (good gravy, I haven't touched it in almost a month!) . . . and build a trailer . . . and build a DLG pod . . . and . . . well, it's going to be a busy build season
