Scaled RC WWII aircraft carrier and Douglas Dauntless SBD Dive Bomber.

Equi Asini

New member
Flight Test crew
You probably have had this idea; it would make a great video if it could be done. Imagine a to scale RC USS Yorktown complete with catch wire floating on a pond with some chop. The deck rolling slightly....a RC Landing Signals Officer with paddles with matching scale Dauntless SBD Dive Bomber with live camera showing pilots view. What a great test of piloting skill it would be and a for certain popular venue for any RC gathering. Does anyone else like this idea?
 

Tench745

Master member
How scale are we talking here? 'Cause a Dauntless in typical FT size would be about 1/12 scale. According to Wikipedia The Yorktown was originally 872 feet long and 93 feet wide, which would be over 72 feet long and almost 8 feet wide in 1/12 scale... Which would be freaking awesome, but a little impractical.
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Not only impracticable but technically unnecessary. Probably a single plywood sheet size for landing with catch wires but scale won't work since the wire would be like .002 and only maybe that high off the surface (wee bit difficult to catch because enough force to scrape the wire would nose the plane over onto the prop). The controle line people have an event called carrier for like the last 50 years. Sometimes the results are really funny.
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
You would need a chase boat to pick up all the planes that end up rocketing off the carrier, probably more than a john boat.

Will we have a person on said carrier? Removing planes from the wires and maybe conducting other operations?

What about the venue. I have a hard time imagining that most places are going to take too kindly to a 70 ft foam board amalgamation floating in a public water way. Are we going to find a large private body of water? How calm does it need to be?

I would love to see it, but it probably won't happen. I am sitting here dreaming up ways it could be constructed. A solar deck would be awesome, that way the boat has infinite power.
 
Okay.... After some research. The overall length of the Yorktown was 898' and the overall beam 98' (WWII). The WWII aircraft aboard was the Grumman F6F Hellcat (not the Douglas Dauntless SBD') having a wingspan 43' and overall length 33.42'+-. Take the Yorktown oal @ 898' divided by the Hellcat @ 33.42' = 26.87 times the Yorktown's oal to the Hellcat's oal. Say the RC Hellcat's wingspan is 3' at 1/14.3 scale nets the scaled oal of the RC Hellcat of 2.33'. This means the overall scaled length of the Yorktown would be 26.87 times the scaled Hellcat at 2.33 which nets a matching scale oal for the Yorktown of 62.6' m/l.

Not practicable for water build; however, it could be done on land using 8 sheets of plywood end to end at 8' long each (net scaled length 64'). The hull above the the waterline (the ground) could be fashioned from foam the same for the superstructure. Add hydraulic gimbals under the flight deck and inside the hull to duplicate pitch and roll as if at sea. Provide a chassis with wheels to support the model Yorktown for towing behind a suitable vehicle. Now launch and land as desired.....Very ambitious and expensive; but, I know many of my fellow Navy veterans and active duty personnel would be thrilled to see the result. The Fight Test crew are capable of doing this.

Throw stones at the idea if you want; just remember I'm an old man with little to do to keep me busy during these Covid days.
Good job sticking up for the idea, @Equi Asini. (y) It's a valid idea but a real longshot that it might be implemented I think. And I'm sure with these models we can land in a much reduced scale distance. But you know these things too.
 

Tench745

Master member
My comment was as much to convey the impressiveness of an aircraft carrier as it was anything else.
Like @Piotrsko mentioned, the control line guys have been doing carrier competitions for decades. They have a "deck" portion laid out on the ground and a couple strings with sand bags tied to the ends stretched across the one end. The goal is to catch the first string and stop as short as possible on the carrier deck.
Could be fun, and very early on FT did somthing kind-of like that with some UMX planes landing on folding tables.
 

quorneng

Master member
Nice but perhaps you can see why an aircraft carries steam fast into the wind to give the plane some airspeed even when it is standing on the deck. It also reduces the landing speed over the deck too.
An arrestor wire (try elastic cotton) helps too.
 

FishbonesAir

Active member
If you go 1/24 scale, your carrier comes down to four sheets of foam insulation for the deck, or 32'. FT got a 100# block of styrofoam to make a plane somewhere... Get styrofoam of thickness equal to distance from flight deck to waterline. Cut to hull shape. Instant carrier.

If you wanted to make it simpler, just make it half length. Also, widen the deck to five feet, by 16' long. Put a glide path indicator to the left of the landing area, just like a real carrier, and use fpv gear.

The slow flyers will rule in this game!
 
If you go 1/24 scale, your carrier comes down to four sheets of foam insulation for the deck, or 32'. FT got a 100# block of styrofoam to make a plane somewhere... Get styrofoam of thickness equal to distance from flight deck to waterline. Cut to hull shape. Instant carrier.

If you wanted to make it simpler, just make it half length. Also, widen the deck to five feet, by 16' long. Put a glide path indicator to the left of the landing area, just like a real carrier, and use fpv gear.

The slow flyers will rule in this game!
Would be fun for sure.
Now if only we could get model plane flight characteristics to match the full size ones.
 

FishbonesAir

Active member
Would be fun for sure.
Now if only we could get model plane flight characteristics to match the full size ones.
That's the real trick. On a carrier approach, if you were using a 1/24 T-28 Trojan, assuming I'm doing my "scale speed" correct, approach would be a glacial 2-3 mph real speed. Yah... Not happening. 😁

But if the plane is light with good flaps, so it can land slow... I think it's doable. But waterproof electronics are a must, and a lot of practice over dry land, lol.
 

Tench745

Master member
That's the real trick. On a carrier approach, if you were using a 1/24 T-28 Trojan, assuming I'm doing my "scale speed" correct, approach would be a glacial 2-3 mph real speed. Yah... Not happening. 😁

But if the plane is light with good flaps, so it can land slow... I think it's doable. But waterproof electronics are a must, and a lot of practice over dry land, lol.
"scale" speed is a bit of a messy business. If you want the model to look like the full scale thing while flying (same bank angle same time to make a 360° turn, etc) what you're looking for is the dynamic similitude speed. This speed is the squareroot of the scale. For a 1/24 scale plane that would mean approach speed would be sqrt(24)= ~4.9.
Internet says the Navy approach speed is 80knots (92mph). So for your model that would mean an approach speed of 18.77mph.
 

FishbonesAir

Active member
Thank you, I had a feeling I wasn't doing that right! So, if you had a moving carrier, then you'd want it going about 7mph, and 18-20 for the model... Though if you're faster, who really cares? 😁

My son came up with an "arrestor gear" suggestion. While catching the line is traditional, his suggestion was using electromagnets that are flush with the deck. The plane dangles a steel hook, maybe with a link that drags the deck?

The beauty of the system is that the carrier Captain can catch the landing, then turn off the arrestor and the plane can takeoff again.
 
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Piotrsko

Master member
Just use the reset function of the wire to back the plane up a bit. Hooks really work frontwards, they fall off easily going backwards which is kind of the point. They aren't a J shape more like a L which is why you have a choice of 4 and a fence.
 

quorneng

Master member
Going back a long way I used to fly small electric (brushed) CL planes indoors on short 6ft lines. They were true control line as the two wires also worked the elevator via a bell crank.
The thrust coupled with some up elevator was quite sufficient to get in the air in about 8 ft but on a hard floor the landing run was over a lap.
I build a Fairey Gannet (based on the KK rubber powered kit) and fitted a hook on it.
SC-Gannet.jpg

After a bit of experimentation I managed to 'arrest' it with an elastic cotton 'wire' so it came to a realistic short halt. With the hook set so it had the some clearance from the ground when sitting on its undercarriage it would only pick up flying slow nose high with up elevator.
The really neat bit was once the motor was shut off the elastic would pull the plane back so it would over run the wire which would then drop off the hook so you could take off again. All done with no human intervention!
 

quorneng

Master member
22Cowboy
Actually they were the HV wires from a 250V/12V transformer so pretty fine.
If you look closely at the picture you can see them coming out of the LH wingtip.
A big voltage drop but the lines were short however it did need nearly 18V to be applied to get 9V at the tiny 6V motor!