D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
BECAUSE OF THE deadlines associated
mostly with the length of time required to
prepare an issue’s text, photos, and ads for
the printer, I actually wrote last month’s
column in January 2005. I was aware of
Hal deBolt’s serious medical problems at
that time, but I did not anticipate his demise
before the column was printed.
I mention this since it looks as if I might
have been unaware of Hal’s passing when I
wrote the column and to point out the sad
coincidence. I did not intend the May
column to be a short tribute; it just worked
out that way.
Who Do You Trust? Once again I’ve been
deceived by material on the Internet, and
I’m growing weary of the inaccuracies and
outright dishonesty found in that medium.
Daniel Curtis of Cincinnati. Ohio, wrote the
following.
“It’s said that you shouldn’t believe
everything you read on the Internet. I read
your column in the February 2005 issue of
MA wherein you stated you had read on the
Internet that Charles Lindbergh was the
only person to fly the NYP.
“I have in my library a copy of The
Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh
published by Charles Scribner and Sons.
The Spirit’s log is included in this book as
an appendix. Charles Lindbergh was not the
only person to fly the ‘Spirit.’
“The log notes that on July 1, 1927
John Thompson’s expressions of the machinist’s art, nicely mounted to illustrate size.
The model in the background is a 1/4-scale Taylorcraft.
The back side of nine-cylinder .049 radial. Notice the single machined carburetor. Stub
of the scale exhaust collector ring shows at four o’clock.
Major Lamphier, Commanding Officer of
Selfridge Field, piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of the field. Another
entry states that on August 8, 1927 Lt.
Phillip R. Love piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of Louisville,
Kentucky.
“What I found interesting was there
were times when Col. Lindbergh flew the
Spirit with passengers! I wonder how they
sat (crouched). Some of those passengers
were Donald A. Hall (designing engineer),
Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Lindbergh’s
mother, and Harry F. Byrd (at that time
governor of Virginia). There were others,
but in the interest of brevity I am leaving
them out.”
If one examines a cutaway drawing of
the Spirit, there is a fuel tank just aft of the
pilot’s seat that could be removed through
the cabin door, providing space for at least a
jump seat in that area. However,
considering the cramped space available
and the lack of windows, one would
presume that such an arrangement would be
unsuitable for people suffering from
claustrophobia.
Later, Bill Hannah kindly sent a copy of
the aforementioned log; it contains a fact
that might be of interest. On July 2, 1927,
Lindbergh flew the NYP from Selfridge
Field (Michigan) to Ottawa, Canada.
While in Ottawa he flew the Spirit over
the funeral of Lieutenant Johnson (Royal
Canadian Air Force), whose pursuit aircraft
crashed as a result of having its tail cut off
when flying in formation as part of a 12-
airplane escort that had accompanied
Lindbergh from Selfridge to Ottawa,
Canada.
I quoted from a source I found on
Induction is via a neat intake manifold
feeding the Cox reed valves, and the engine
is set up to have all nine cylinders reach
Top Dead Center at the same time.
Carburetion is via a custom-built unit.
Weight is cited as “About twice that of a
normal .40 two stroker.”
All nine Cox glow plugs are driven off
of a wiring harness built into a ring behind
the cylinders. This setup needs a strong
battery since it draws 36 amps!
The engine cannot be started in the
vertical position because of the fouling of
the bottom plugs. Therefore, it is handstarted
with the engine held horizontal
(shaft pointed up). This is surprisingly
scalelike because most full-scale round
engines collect fuel and oil in the bottom
cylinders; that is why they are turned over
several times before the ignition is turned
on. Hence the cry “Contact!” to the person
propping the engine. It is also the reason for
the typical belch of smoke when radials are
first fired.
According to the article, the engine
usually starts on the first flip and idles
smoothly. The display propeller is
essentially a scaled-down Hamilton
Standard and actually lowers the pitch as
the engine accelerates.
This and the other two engines are
incredible pieces of workmanship and
design. John Thompson spent a year and a
half designing and fabricating the .049 unit
alone. It is somewhat difficult to find a clear
dividing line between “mechanical marvel”
and “work of metal art” in describing his
creations.
Are the engines pragmatic, practical,
useful, or not? Who really cares? They are a
joy to look at and to enjoy, and one can
speculate that that is exactly why John
Thompson created them.
The nine-cylinder engine’s glow current is carried in the ring and then distributed to the
cut-down Cox glow plugs via neat scalelike wire and clips.
Engine has nine Cox cylinders and pistons covered with Williams Bros. plastic
cylinders, Hamilton Standard propeller. Glow-plug wires run off metal ring.
Google about the Spirit of St. Louis. That
information was obviously untrue. I
returned to the site to check for a byline,
and the article is no longer there!
Why would someone place erroneous
material on a site like this? The quandary
then becomes, How can one determine what
information on the Internet is honest and
what is fraudulent?
Apparently the only way to avoid this
sort of embarrassment is to only use
information that is confirmed on at least
two other sites. Considering how timeconsuming
that would be, perhaps the better
answer is to never quote the Internet!
All I can do is apologize to the readers.
To the best of my knowledge, the other
facts concerning the NYP are true.
Incredible Engines: I continue to be
amazed by the new dimensions a good
hobby shop can add to one’s modeling
experiences. Recently George Knapple
called from The Hangar to tell me I should
grab my camera and get down there. The
photos included with this and next month’s
column illustrate why.
Mitch Thompson had brought in his late
father John’s engines for appraisal. In the
last few years of his life John had fabricated
some astonishing model engines in his
home workshop that was equipped with a
metal lathe, milling machines, and other
hobbyist’s machine tools. By vocation John
was a machinist in the aircraft industry here
in Wichita and in other cities.
The workmanship is first-class, and the
design and engineering are exceptional.
Mitch has for sale the machinist drawings
of all three designs. His address is Box
513, Douglass KS 67039. All of the
nonstock parts are machined; there are no
castings.
Considering space limitations, I will
describe the nine-cylinder .049 engine this
month and the other two next month. I’ll toss
in a photo of the three of them as a teaser.
After I had prepared the text and taken
the photos, and just ahead of deadline,
someone shared a copy of Scale R/C
Modeler from February 1978 with me. It
contains an article about John’s Thompson’s
nine-cylinder Cox Baby Bee units. This
provides details Mitch was unable to give,
so I’ll share from that article.
These nine Cox Baby Bee cylinders are
milled down to fit inside Williams Bros.
plastic Wasp Jr. cylinders. Yes, the engine
has been run repeatedly with no melting of
the plastic parts. They are sprayed with
high-temperature paint, however.
The engine is geared via a planetary
gearbox at a 2.1:1 ratio. This will turn an 18
x 4 propeller (not the metal scale unit!) at
10,000 rpm according to the article.
Broken Gorillas? In the December 2004
column I attempted (unsuccessfully
apparently) to be funny about the expansion
of Gorilla Glue. Several readers
misinterpreted my humor to be somehow
critical of this material. Far from it! This is an
excellent adhesive if used in the proper places
and handled in the proper manner.
One certainly needs to be familiar with the
amount this adhesive expands and allow for
it, but Gorilla Glue is wonderful for filling
gaps. One excellent application is in sheeting
Styrofoam wings.
Spread the adhesive on the wood skins
and hot-wire cut surfaces thinly using a credit
card or playing card as a trowel. The layers
are assembled identical to the techniques used
with the various contact cements, except that
you must make sure the layers are heavily
weighted because of the expansion of the
adhesive and that the excess glue is removed
from the edges. Since the glue expands for
many hours during its setting, periodically
check and wipe off the excess.
The advantage to using Gorilla Glue as an
adhesive for covering foam cores is its
expansion. As it expands, it fills much of the
surface roughness with adhesive, producing a
tightly bonded and strong assembly. Gorilla
Glue penetrates much more of the foam
surface than similar contact-type adhesives.
Try it; you’ll probably like it! It is also much
lighter when set.
This adhesive can be accelerated, at the
expense of some strength, by lightly spraying
the surfaces to be joined with tap water.
Adequate cleanup of hands and tools can be
accomplished with denatured alcohol.
Most of this column has been on the negative
side, so I’ll end with something funny.
A local beginning flier took his model up
for flight and then realized he had not
extended the transmitter antenna. He reached
for it, extending it forcefully enough to flip
the transmitter away from himself. His trainer
merrily flew off as he scrambled to reach the
transmitter, only to stumble and fall.
Miraculously he reached the sticks soon
enough to regain control while struggling to
his feet and landed the model. Close your
eyes and picture this event.
This sort of fits in with something I
witnessed many years ago when a flier was
hand-launching his model. He took two or
three steps forward and tossed his transmitter
rather than the model. This story did not have
a happy ending.
Then there is the one where a local flier
crashed his model well off the field. In a state
of mind-numbing panic, he ran to his car, laid
the transmitter on the hood, and drove off
madly. This is the only model-airplane crash
I’ve ever heard of that destroyed the
transmitter. MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2005/06
Page Numbers: 71,72,74
Edition: Model Aviation - 2005/06
Page Numbers: 71,72,74
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
BECAUSE OF THE deadlines associated
mostly with the length of time required to
prepare an issue’s text, photos, and ads for
the printer, I actually wrote last month’s
column in January 2005. I was aware of
Hal deBolt’s serious medical problems at
that time, but I did not anticipate his demise
before the column was printed.
I mention this since it looks as if I might
have been unaware of Hal’s passing when I
wrote the column and to point out the sad
coincidence. I did not intend the May
column to be a short tribute; it just worked
out that way.
Who Do You Trust? Once again I’ve been
deceived by material on the Internet, and
I’m growing weary of the inaccuracies and
outright dishonesty found in that medium.
Daniel Curtis of Cincinnati. Ohio, wrote the
following.
“It’s said that you shouldn’t believe
everything you read on the Internet. I read
your column in the February 2005 issue of
MA wherein you stated you had read on the
Internet that Charles Lindbergh was the
only person to fly the NYP.
“I have in my library a copy of The
Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh
published by Charles Scribner and Sons.
The Spirit’s log is included in this book as
an appendix. Charles Lindbergh was not the
only person to fly the ‘Spirit.’
“The log notes that on July 1, 1927
John Thompson’s expressions of the machinist’s art, nicely mounted to illustrate size.
The model in the background is a 1/4-scale Taylorcraft.
The back side of nine-cylinder .049 radial. Notice the single machined carburetor. Stub
of the scale exhaust collector ring shows at four o’clock.
Major Lamphier, Commanding Officer of
Selfridge Field, piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of the field. Another
entry states that on August 8, 1927 Lt.
Phillip R. Love piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of Louisville,
Kentucky.
“What I found interesting was there
were times when Col. Lindbergh flew the
Spirit with passengers! I wonder how they
sat (crouched). Some of those passengers
were Donald A. Hall (designing engineer),
Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Lindbergh’s
mother, and Harry F. Byrd (at that time
governor of Virginia). There were others,
but in the interest of brevity I am leaving
them out.”
If one examines a cutaway drawing of
the Spirit, there is a fuel tank just aft of the
pilot’s seat that could be removed through
the cabin door, providing space for at least a
jump seat in that area. However,
considering the cramped space available
and the lack of windows, one would
presume that such an arrangement would be
unsuitable for people suffering from
claustrophobia.
Later, Bill Hannah kindly sent a copy of
the aforementioned log; it contains a fact
that might be of interest. On July 2, 1927,
Lindbergh flew the NYP from Selfridge
Field (Michigan) to Ottawa, Canada.
While in Ottawa he flew the Spirit over
the funeral of Lieutenant Johnson (Royal
Canadian Air Force), whose pursuit aircraft
crashed as a result of having its tail cut off
when flying in formation as part of a 12-
airplane escort that had accompanied
Lindbergh from Selfridge to Ottawa,
Canada.
I quoted from a source I found on
Induction is via a neat intake manifold
feeding the Cox reed valves, and the engine
is set up to have all nine cylinders reach
Top Dead Center at the same time.
Carburetion is via a custom-built unit.
Weight is cited as “About twice that of a
normal .40 two stroker.”
All nine Cox glow plugs are driven off
of a wiring harness built into a ring behind
the cylinders. This setup needs a strong
battery since it draws 36 amps!
The engine cannot be started in the
vertical position because of the fouling of
the bottom plugs. Therefore, it is handstarted
with the engine held horizontal
(shaft pointed up). This is surprisingly
scalelike because most full-scale round
engines collect fuel and oil in the bottom
cylinders; that is why they are turned over
several times before the ignition is turned
on. Hence the cry “Contact!” to the person
propping the engine. It is also the reason for
the typical belch of smoke when radials are
first fired.
According to the article, the engine
usually starts on the first flip and idles
smoothly. The display propeller is
essentially a scaled-down Hamilton
Standard and actually lowers the pitch as
the engine accelerates.
This and the other two engines are
incredible pieces of workmanship and
design. John Thompson spent a year and a
half designing and fabricating the .049 unit
alone. It is somewhat difficult to find a clear
dividing line between “mechanical marvel”
and “work of metal art” in describing his
creations.
Are the engines pragmatic, practical,
useful, or not? Who really cares? They are a
joy to look at and to enjoy, and one can
speculate that that is exactly why John
Thompson created them.
The nine-cylinder engine’s glow current is carried in the ring and then distributed to the
cut-down Cox glow plugs via neat scalelike wire and clips.
Engine has nine Cox cylinders and pistons covered with Williams Bros. plastic
cylinders, Hamilton Standard propeller. Glow-plug wires run off metal ring.
Google about the Spirit of St. Louis. That
information was obviously untrue. I
returned to the site to check for a byline,
and the article is no longer there!
Why would someone place erroneous
material on a site like this? The quandary
then becomes, How can one determine what
information on the Internet is honest and
what is fraudulent?
Apparently the only way to avoid this
sort of embarrassment is to only use
information that is confirmed on at least
two other sites. Considering how timeconsuming
that would be, perhaps the better
answer is to never quote the Internet!
All I can do is apologize to the readers.
To the best of my knowledge, the other
facts concerning the NYP are true.
Incredible Engines: I continue to be
amazed by the new dimensions a good
hobby shop can add to one’s modeling
experiences. Recently George Knapple
called from The Hangar to tell me I should
grab my camera and get down there. The
photos included with this and next month’s
column illustrate why.
Mitch Thompson had brought in his late
father John’s engines for appraisal. In the
last few years of his life John had fabricated
some astonishing model engines in his
home workshop that was equipped with a
metal lathe, milling machines, and other
hobbyist’s machine tools. By vocation John
was a machinist in the aircraft industry here
in Wichita and in other cities.
The workmanship is first-class, and the
design and engineering are exceptional.
Mitch has for sale the machinist drawings
of all three designs. His address is Box
513, Douglass KS 67039. All of the
nonstock parts are machined; there are no
castings.
Considering space limitations, I will
describe the nine-cylinder .049 engine this
month and the other two next month. I’ll toss
in a photo of the three of them as a teaser.
After I had prepared the text and taken
the photos, and just ahead of deadline,
someone shared a copy of Scale R/C
Modeler from February 1978 with me. It
contains an article about John’s Thompson’s
nine-cylinder Cox Baby Bee units. This
provides details Mitch was unable to give,
so I’ll share from that article.
These nine Cox Baby Bee cylinders are
milled down to fit inside Williams Bros.
plastic Wasp Jr. cylinders. Yes, the engine
has been run repeatedly with no melting of
the plastic parts. They are sprayed with
high-temperature paint, however.
The engine is geared via a planetary
gearbox at a 2.1:1 ratio. This will turn an 18
x 4 propeller (not the metal scale unit!) at
10,000 rpm according to the article.
Broken Gorillas? In the December 2004
column I attempted (unsuccessfully
apparently) to be funny about the expansion
of Gorilla Glue. Several readers
misinterpreted my humor to be somehow
critical of this material. Far from it! This is an
excellent adhesive if used in the proper places
and handled in the proper manner.
One certainly needs to be familiar with the
amount this adhesive expands and allow for
it, but Gorilla Glue is wonderful for filling
gaps. One excellent application is in sheeting
Styrofoam wings.
Spread the adhesive on the wood skins
and hot-wire cut surfaces thinly using a credit
card or playing card as a trowel. The layers
are assembled identical to the techniques used
with the various contact cements, except that
you must make sure the layers are heavily
weighted because of the expansion of the
adhesive and that the excess glue is removed
from the edges. Since the glue expands for
many hours during its setting, periodically
check and wipe off the excess.
The advantage to using Gorilla Glue as an
adhesive for covering foam cores is its
expansion. As it expands, it fills much of the
surface roughness with adhesive, producing a
tightly bonded and strong assembly. Gorilla
Glue penetrates much more of the foam
surface than similar contact-type adhesives.
Try it; you’ll probably like it! It is also much
lighter when set.
This adhesive can be accelerated, at the
expense of some strength, by lightly spraying
the surfaces to be joined with tap water.
Adequate cleanup of hands and tools can be
accomplished with denatured alcohol.
Most of this column has been on the negative
side, so I’ll end with something funny.
A local beginning flier took his model up
for flight and then realized he had not
extended the transmitter antenna. He reached
for it, extending it forcefully enough to flip
the transmitter away from himself. His trainer
merrily flew off as he scrambled to reach the
transmitter, only to stumble and fall.
Miraculously he reached the sticks soon
enough to regain control while struggling to
his feet and landed the model. Close your
eyes and picture this event.
This sort of fits in with something I
witnessed many years ago when a flier was
hand-launching his model. He took two or
three steps forward and tossed his transmitter
rather than the model. This story did not have
a happy ending.
Then there is the one where a local flier
crashed his model well off the field. In a state
of mind-numbing panic, he ran to his car, laid
the transmitter on the hood, and drove off
madly. This is the only model-airplane crash
I’ve ever heard of that destroyed the
transmitter. MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2005/06
Page Numbers: 71,72,74
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
BECAUSE OF THE deadlines associated
mostly with the length of time required to
prepare an issue’s text, photos, and ads for
the printer, I actually wrote last month’s
column in January 2005. I was aware of
Hal deBolt’s serious medical problems at
that time, but I did not anticipate his demise
before the column was printed.
I mention this since it looks as if I might
have been unaware of Hal’s passing when I
wrote the column and to point out the sad
coincidence. I did not intend the May
column to be a short tribute; it just worked
out that way.
Who Do You Trust? Once again I’ve been
deceived by material on the Internet, and
I’m growing weary of the inaccuracies and
outright dishonesty found in that medium.
Daniel Curtis of Cincinnati. Ohio, wrote the
following.
“It’s said that you shouldn’t believe
everything you read on the Internet. I read
your column in the February 2005 issue of
MA wherein you stated you had read on the
Internet that Charles Lindbergh was the
only person to fly the NYP.
“I have in my library a copy of The
Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh
published by Charles Scribner and Sons.
The Spirit’s log is included in this book as
an appendix. Charles Lindbergh was not the
only person to fly the ‘Spirit.’
“The log notes that on July 1, 1927
John Thompson’s expressions of the machinist’s art, nicely mounted to illustrate size.
The model in the background is a 1/4-scale Taylorcraft.
The back side of nine-cylinder .049 radial. Notice the single machined carburetor. Stub
of the scale exhaust collector ring shows at four o’clock.
Major Lamphier, Commanding Officer of
Selfridge Field, piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of the field. Another
entry states that on August 8, 1927 Lt.
Phillip R. Love piloted the Spirit for ten
minutes in the vicinity of Louisville,
Kentucky.
“What I found interesting was there
were times when Col. Lindbergh flew the
Spirit with passengers! I wonder how they
sat (crouched). Some of those passengers
were Donald A. Hall (designing engineer),
Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Lindbergh’s
mother, and Harry F. Byrd (at that time
governor of Virginia). There were others,
but in the interest of brevity I am leaving
them out.”
If one examines a cutaway drawing of
the Spirit, there is a fuel tank just aft of the
pilot’s seat that could be removed through
the cabin door, providing space for at least a
jump seat in that area. However,
considering the cramped space available
and the lack of windows, one would
presume that such an arrangement would be
unsuitable for people suffering from
claustrophobia.
Later, Bill Hannah kindly sent a copy of
the aforementioned log; it contains a fact
that might be of interest. On July 2, 1927,
Lindbergh flew the NYP from Selfridge
Field (Michigan) to Ottawa, Canada.
While in Ottawa he flew the Spirit over
the funeral of Lieutenant Johnson (Royal
Canadian Air Force), whose pursuit aircraft
crashed as a result of having its tail cut off
when flying in formation as part of a 12-
airplane escort that had accompanied
Lindbergh from Selfridge to Ottawa,
Canada.
I quoted from a source I found on
Induction is via a neat intake manifold
feeding the Cox reed valves, and the engine
is set up to have all nine cylinders reach
Top Dead Center at the same time.
Carburetion is via a custom-built unit.
Weight is cited as “About twice that of a
normal .40 two stroker.”
All nine Cox glow plugs are driven off
of a wiring harness built into a ring behind
the cylinders. This setup needs a strong
battery since it draws 36 amps!
The engine cannot be started in the
vertical position because of the fouling of
the bottom plugs. Therefore, it is handstarted
with the engine held horizontal
(shaft pointed up). This is surprisingly
scalelike because most full-scale round
engines collect fuel and oil in the bottom
cylinders; that is why they are turned over
several times before the ignition is turned
on. Hence the cry “Contact!” to the person
propping the engine. It is also the reason for
the typical belch of smoke when radials are
first fired.
According to the article, the engine
usually starts on the first flip and idles
smoothly. The display propeller is
essentially a scaled-down Hamilton
Standard and actually lowers the pitch as
the engine accelerates.
This and the other two engines are
incredible pieces of workmanship and
design. John Thompson spent a year and a
half designing and fabricating the .049 unit
alone. It is somewhat difficult to find a clear
dividing line between “mechanical marvel”
and “work of metal art” in describing his
creations.
Are the engines pragmatic, practical,
useful, or not? Who really cares? They are a
joy to look at and to enjoy, and one can
speculate that that is exactly why John
Thompson created them.
The nine-cylinder engine’s glow current is carried in the ring and then distributed to the
cut-down Cox glow plugs via neat scalelike wire and clips.
Engine has nine Cox cylinders and pistons covered with Williams Bros. plastic
cylinders, Hamilton Standard propeller. Glow-plug wires run off metal ring.
Google about the Spirit of St. Louis. That
information was obviously untrue. I
returned to the site to check for a byline,
and the article is no longer there!
Why would someone place erroneous
material on a site like this? The quandary
then becomes, How can one determine what
information on the Internet is honest and
what is fraudulent?
Apparently the only way to avoid this
sort of embarrassment is to only use
information that is confirmed on at least
two other sites. Considering how timeconsuming
that would be, perhaps the better
answer is to never quote the Internet!
All I can do is apologize to the readers.
To the best of my knowledge, the other
facts concerning the NYP are true.
Incredible Engines: I continue to be
amazed by the new dimensions a good
hobby shop can add to one’s modeling
experiences. Recently George Knapple
called from The Hangar to tell me I should
grab my camera and get down there. The
photos included with this and next month’s
column illustrate why.
Mitch Thompson had brought in his late
father John’s engines for appraisal. In the
last few years of his life John had fabricated
some astonishing model engines in his
home workshop that was equipped with a
metal lathe, milling machines, and other
hobbyist’s machine tools. By vocation John
was a machinist in the aircraft industry here
in Wichita and in other cities.
The workmanship is first-class, and the
design and engineering are exceptional.
Mitch has for sale the machinist drawings
of all three designs. His address is Box
513, Douglass KS 67039. All of the
nonstock parts are machined; there are no
castings.
Considering space limitations, I will
describe the nine-cylinder .049 engine this
month and the other two next month. I’ll toss
in a photo of the three of them as a teaser.
After I had prepared the text and taken
the photos, and just ahead of deadline,
someone shared a copy of Scale R/C
Modeler from February 1978 with me. It
contains an article about John’s Thompson’s
nine-cylinder Cox Baby Bee units. This
provides details Mitch was unable to give,
so I’ll share from that article.
These nine Cox Baby Bee cylinders are
milled down to fit inside Williams Bros.
plastic Wasp Jr. cylinders. Yes, the engine
has been run repeatedly with no melting of
the plastic parts. They are sprayed with
high-temperature paint, however.
The engine is geared via a planetary
gearbox at a 2.1:1 ratio. This will turn an 18
x 4 propeller (not the metal scale unit!) at
10,000 rpm according to the article.
Broken Gorillas? In the December 2004
column I attempted (unsuccessfully
apparently) to be funny about the expansion
of Gorilla Glue. Several readers
misinterpreted my humor to be somehow
critical of this material. Far from it! This is an
excellent adhesive if used in the proper places
and handled in the proper manner.
One certainly needs to be familiar with the
amount this adhesive expands and allow for
it, but Gorilla Glue is wonderful for filling
gaps. One excellent application is in sheeting
Styrofoam wings.
Spread the adhesive on the wood skins
and hot-wire cut surfaces thinly using a credit
card or playing card as a trowel. The layers
are assembled identical to the techniques used
with the various contact cements, except that
you must make sure the layers are heavily
weighted because of the expansion of the
adhesive and that the excess glue is removed
from the edges. Since the glue expands for
many hours during its setting, periodically
check and wipe off the excess.
The advantage to using Gorilla Glue as an
adhesive for covering foam cores is its
expansion. As it expands, it fills much of the
surface roughness with adhesive, producing a
tightly bonded and strong assembly. Gorilla
Glue penetrates much more of the foam
surface than similar contact-type adhesives.
Try it; you’ll probably like it! It is also much
lighter when set.
This adhesive can be accelerated, at the
expense of some strength, by lightly spraying
the surfaces to be joined with tap water.
Adequate cleanup of hands and tools can be
accomplished with denatured alcohol.
Most of this column has been on the negative
side, so I’ll end with something funny.
A local beginning flier took his model up
for flight and then realized he had not
extended the transmitter antenna. He reached
for it, extending it forcefully enough to flip
the transmitter away from himself. His trainer
merrily flew off as he scrambled to reach the
transmitter, only to stumble and fall.
Miraculously he reached the sticks soon
enough to regain control while struggling to
his feet and landed the model. Close your
eyes and picture this event.
This sort of fits in with something I
witnessed many years ago when a flier was
hand-launching his model. He took two or
three steps forward and tossed his transmitter
rather than the model. This story did not have
a happy ending.
Then there is the one where a local flier
crashed his model well off the field. In a state
of mind-numbing panic, he ran to his car, laid
the transmitter on the hood, and drove off
madly. This is the only model-airplane crash
I’ve ever heard of that destroyed the
transmitter. MA