quorneng
Master member
A very long time ago (over 60 years!) my late brother built a Mercury Marauder from a kit.
A slightly unusual design A2 contest towline glider.
This a modern build.
Only really performed test glides but it flew well. My brother lost interest so it got left.
About 20 years later in the 70s I decided to convert it to RC. No problem today but back then servos were still huge and every thing was bulky so I decided to build a new larger fuselage with a big fin and rudder as well as an all flying tail plane. At the same time I extended the span to 72" from 65", removed the polyhedral from the wing tips and added ailerons. They were mechanically connected to the rudder servo in the fuselage.
I flew it once (1975?) from a proper hill in not ideal conditions and it survived. It went back in store till 2019!
This how it looked in at the beginning of that year.
A serious conversion. All new tissue, micro servos all round and a Blue Wonder 100W motor in the nose.
I appreciate there is little of the original Marauder left but the wing structure is from the kit, as its balsa & glue.and are 60+ years old.
With a 1800 mAh 2s LiPo it weighs 15 oz (425 g). An original A2 Marauder glider would be about 11 oz all up so not too big a weight increase.
The battery would give a substantial power on 'cruising' endurance of close to 3/4 of an hour.
It flies pretty much like a glider too.
Unfortunately it did not last that long. On the fourth flight with a bit turbulence the wing decided it had had enough!
A shame but given the brittleness of the balsa it is not really worth repairing. If fact the broken wing completely separated so the fuselage just lawn darted straight down causing considerable internal damage to the fuselage.
A slightly unusual design A2 contest towline glider.
This a modern build.
Only really performed test glides but it flew well. My brother lost interest so it got left.
About 20 years later in the 70s I decided to convert it to RC. No problem today but back then servos were still huge and every thing was bulky so I decided to build a new larger fuselage with a big fin and rudder as well as an all flying tail plane. At the same time I extended the span to 72" from 65", removed the polyhedral from the wing tips and added ailerons. They were mechanically connected to the rudder servo in the fuselage.
I flew it once (1975?) from a proper hill in not ideal conditions and it survived. It went back in store till 2019!
This how it looked in at the beginning of that year.
A serious conversion. All new tissue, micro servos all round and a Blue Wonder 100W motor in the nose.
I appreciate there is little of the original Marauder left but the wing structure is from the kit, as its balsa & glue.and are 60+ years old.
With a 1800 mAh 2s LiPo it weighs 15 oz (425 g). An original A2 Marauder glider would be about 11 oz all up so not too big a weight increase.
The battery would give a substantial power on 'cruising' endurance of close to 3/4 of an hour.
It flies pretty much like a glider too.
A shame but given the brittleness of the balsa it is not really worth repairing. If fact the broken wing completely separated so the fuselage just lawn darted straight down causing considerable internal damage to the fuselage.
