Radio control 56" span Aviation Traders Carvair, a lifetime in the making!

Kartman24

Member
A little bit of history first, when i was in my early teens my brother and i would get packed off to our grandparents in Hadleigh, Essex (UK) for two weeks during the school summer hols, i was building the usual Keilkraft rubber models and gliders back then. My brother and i were both interested in aviation and our days were spent either over at the modelling strip on One tree island or at Southend airport, the main carrier there being British Air Ferries. The main aircraft in and out were Viscounts and Heralds but the aircraft that we most looked forward to seeing were the BAF ATL Carvairs, what`s not to like, 4 noisy radial engines, an interesting lumpy front end (years before the 747) and most of them had interesting names, Porky Pete, Plain Jane, Fat Albert, Big Bill and Big John are a few that i remember. You could hear them coming anywhere in the Southend area and we would lay awake at night listening to them growling in on a low approach to the airport.
Since getting into r/c about 25 years ago i have always wanted to have one to fly, no chance of a manufacturer producing one and no plans around to build from, besides a lot of drag and probably marginal on weight using wood unless it was built VERY big. About 10 years ago i was lucky enough to purchase a 100" control line Carvair that was built in the early 60`s by two guys who ran a model shop in Leigh on Sea just outside Southend, this was flown at a number of Country shows before being retired and hung up in their shop `Wings & Wheels.`It was eventually bought by a full size Carvair Captain and hung up in his dining room, i purchased it from his daughter who was selling stuff for her mum following his passing, getting it home was a challenge as it is one piece! Again thoughts turned to building a flyer but the practicalities and lack of plans put it on the back burner again. My flying buddy John who sadly passed away last year knew how much i hankered after one of these and having seen the control line model a number of times set about drawing up some plans for a depron version scaled down, he had scratch built several much smaller depron models which at that time i had not attempted. He was at the time of his passing working on a revised set of plans as he thought the originals he had done may not build up correctly but he was gone before he could complete them so i will have to work from his originals.
So here we are, my new foamboard project, 55" span, he had drawn them for retracts and flaps but using the lessons learnt from the ME109 i hope to build it light enough to not need the extra weight and complications of flaps and it will be a hand launch, again to save weight. If this model proves to be successful i will scale it up and add the retracts and flaps, if it proves unsuccessful it will be repaired as necessary and hung up in my house.

The picture here is of the Control line one hung above our stairs to start the thread off and i am now a good way into the build so will post more pictures of the progress.
 

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Kartman24

Member
A few more pictures to bring you up to date with the progress so far.
 

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Tench745

Master member
What a profoundly odd airplane.

I love it.
And your build looks to be progressing quite well too.
 

Kartman24

Member
Will have 4 motors, max prop size is 6" due to the proximity of the fuselage, fuselage and wing combined weigh a pound and a half at the moment, if i can keep it between 3.5 lbs to 4lbs i will be very pleased. Tailplane will be glued on tomorrow and i am now looking at the motor pods.
 

Inq

Elite member
A little bit of history first, when i was in my early teens my brother and i would get packed off to our grandparents in Hadleigh, Essex (UK)

I like hearing about people's "story"... especially from somewhere exotic (meaning... not where I live). The first thought reading yours... was how long ago was that? I checked your bio... nothing there. I get it was some time ago. I cut my teeth on control line planes with my Dad back in the 60's, but can't imagine swinging around something with a 100" wingspan.

The aesthetics of that plane aside, I like your enthusiasm. Being a military brat born in Hawaii, when shipped home, my first airplane ride (at 2 years) was a Lockheed Constellation.

Great Build... keep it coming!
 

Kartman24

Member
It was back in the early to mid 70`s when we were visiting Southend airport, here are a couple of pictures of the Control line Carvair being flown in the mid 1960`s.
 

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CrshNBrn

Elite member
I wouldn't have known you just started with foamboard building. You're already designing and building planes like a pro. Nicely done!
 

Kartman24

Member
Tonights update, tailplane and fin sanded to profile and have hinge slots cut, Tailplane is now glued on, tomorrow the fuselage servos will be fitted, going with two for the elevators, one for each side as the space between them is quite large to put a wire joiner.
 

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Kartman24

Member
Been busy with another Foamboard project (non flying) which i am making someone for Christmas, i will post on the forum once the present has been unwrapped, just in case the person stumbles across this forum! Back to the task in hand, the fuselage is now finished bar the outer 3mm depron skin, that is the last job on the list. All servos are fitted and fuselage control snakes fitted and connected, i used snake inners as the outer and ran carbon rod through the centre as the control rod with metal ends bound with cotton and epoxy to keep the weight at the rear as low as possible. The motor box skins are now made and fitted, i went off plan here as i had with the whole wing build, my pal had drawn the motor supports as a + section, a vertical and a horizontal with formers round them, my boxes will still have formers but they will need less material, i think this is a stronger method as well. Looking at the motor selection now and will put some thin ply strengthening into the inside walls on the boxes before adding the ply motor mounts to the front of the boxes.
 

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