Chester Special
Air Racing relived with this CL Scale replica
Frank Beatty admired the classic full-scale air racer Chester Special and built a 16-inch-wingspan balsa-and-tissue Comet kit of the same name while in grade school. The airplane (and the model) became a favorite subject of his, and he vowed to build a better model someday.
Frank began his design by using three-views from J.H. Robinson (featured in the 1959 Aeromodeler) as his main reference. Using Brodak Piper Cream and Forest Green as the paint scheme, the model was 2½ inches = 1 foot scale. Its wingspan reached 43 inches with a length of 38 inches, and the model weighed in at 6.5 pounds. A Roberts three-wire system was used to operate the engine throttle.
Frank initially had issues with the model being tail-heavy and pitch-sensitive, and the engine ran hot. His revisions included cutting a 1½ × 2-inch nonscale opening in the cowl bottom, adding weight to the nose to correct the pitch sensitivity, and modifying the propeller.
Construction was broken down into smaller components:
- Wing assembled first
- Stabilizers, elevators, and rudder next
- Undercarriage, cowling, and fuselage completed last
Sig Stix-It and Sig Koverall were used to cover the bare wood before primer coats. All finishes—thinner, primer, dope—were from Brodak to avoid incompatible products that can cause cracks or surface problems.
Frank painted and installed a 2½-inch-scale Williams Brothers pilot before closing the canopy area. Final surface details were added using a Top Flite MonoKote Panel Line Pen, permanent Sharpie markers, silver Pilot markers, black striping tape, and black pens. The propeller was painted with aluminum-colored dope on the front side and matte black on the back.
After fixing the initial balance issues, Frank reported that his "... nice flying model became a very nice flying model."
The Chester Special was featured as a construction article in the October 2003 MA as AMA Plans Service listing 947. It consists of three sheets and is available for $23 plus shipping and handling. See page 171 or go to www.modelaircraft.org/plans.aspx for ordering information.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
