AMA Plans Service Showcase
Longster Wimpy
A 1930s design electrified
Les Long designed and built the Longster Wimpy in 1935. This low-wing, home-built aircraft was unusual for the time, and the design was copied and modified in later years.
Dereck Woodward fell in love with the airplane and recreated it in CAD to produce a sport-flying, electric-powered scale. His model uses typical balsa-and-plywood construction, with stringers and formers forming the fuselage. For simplicity, the wing ribs are the same as on the full-scale version except for the wingtip rib, and only the center section is sheeted.
A Graupner Speed 600 motor paired with an eight-cell battery pack powered Dereck’s model. An upgrade to a brushless motor and a Li-Po battery would provide more power and reduce the Wimpy’s flying weight.
Specifications and features:
- Wingspan: 59 inches
- Flying weight: 52 ounces
- Power: Graupner Speed 600 with eight-cell battery (upgradeable to brushless + Li-Po)
- Controls: rudder, elevator, ailerons, throttle
Flight characteristics:
- Lively performance at about 50 watts per pound
- Capable of axial rolls and slightly off-round rolls
- Difficult to stall; the model never dropped a wing in testing
The Longster Wimpy was featured in a construction article in the August 1999 Model Aviation (MA). AMA members can access the magazine’s digital archives on the Academy’s website to read more.
This design is AMA Plans Service listing 878 and is available for $21 plus shipping and handling. See page 167 of the issue or go to www.modelaircraft.org/plans.aspx for ordering information.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
