Control Line Scale - 2006/12

THE PASPED SKYLARK is a one-of-a-kind
aircraft built in 1935 by Fred Pastorius and
Stanley Pederson. The first word of the
airplane’s name was taken from the first three
letters of the owners’ last names.
The Skylark has been seen at aircraft tours
and shows for many years. Time, use, and
several changes of ownership had taken its toll
on the aircraft, and sometime before 2002 owner
Robert “Buzz” Penny and restorer Tom Brown
restored the airplane to its original factory
configuration.
At the 2002 Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the Skylark was awarded the Antique Bronze
Age Champion trophy. That’s remarkable for a 67-year-old aircraft,
and it’s a tribute to a remarkable restoration.
Frank Beatty of Granite City, Illinois, has a knack for selecting odd
aircraft to model. Once again he used his fine modeling skills to create
a great-looking Pasped Skylark, shown in this month’s photos.
Frank is using a fine set of three-views by Charles Schultz as
documentation for the model. Charles is well known for his three-view
and aircraft drawings, of which he has approximately 400 available.
You can obtain a list of his drawings by sending $1 and an SASE to
him at 910 Broadfields Dr., Louisville KY 40207.
The Charles Schultz three-views that Frank used for documentation
purposes were published in the January 2002 SKYWAYS: The Journal
of the Airplane 1920-1940, available from 15 Crescent Rd.,
Poughkeepsie NY 12601. This publication is an excellent source of
information about airplanes of times gone by.
Frank constructed his Skylark to a scale of 1.5 inches = 1 foot,
giving it a wingspan of 54 inches. Weighing just less than 6 pounds, an
O.S. Max .46 AX engine provides more than enough power for smooth
flights.
Frank Beatty models the obscure Pasped Skylark
[[email protected]]
Control Line Scale Bill Boss
Also included in this column:
• Contact information for
Arnold Clancy’s U/Tronics
• Interesting scale airfoil
information
• A slip-wing Hurricane
Frank Beatty scratch-built this 1935 Pasped Skylark—another odd airplane that he has a
knack of selecting to model. It has a wingspan of 54 inches.
Frank Beatty’s Skylark has an O.S. Max .46 AX engine and is
controlled with a standard three-line system. Beatty photo.
The slip-wing Hurricane was developed during World War II to
take off from short fields and have extended range with the upper
detachable wing’s fuel tanks.
The engine throttle is controlled via a standard three-line control
system, with a link to operate landing flaps. According to Frank, his
airplane flies extremely well, stays out on the lines well, and has
excellent ground-handling attributes.
The model’s color-and-markings emulate a Pasped Skylark that
was featured on the cover of a pre-World War II issue of Popular
Aviation magazine. The overall color is orange, with black for lettering
and cowl and fuselage accents, and white pinstriping. Frank used the
1/16-inch-wide pinstriping material from Great Planes.
The model was painted with Brodak Manufacturing “Cruiser
Orange” to re-create the prototype. Rexlace material was used to
emulate the wing and landing-gear rigging, and Frank highly
December 2006 163
12sig6 .QXD 10/25/06 1:11 PM Page 163recommends it. The material comes in spools
and in various colors, and you can find it in
most craft stores.
Thanks to Frank Beatty for providing us
with a look at another of his outstanding
models.
An Omission: In the last column I was so
engrossed in writing about Clancy Arnold’s
U/Tronics control systems that I left out an
important item: how to contact him about
obtaining further information or ordering one
of his great systems.
You can reach Clancy Arnold at 4006
Eagle Cove Ct., Indianapolis IN 46254; Tel.:
(317) 387-1940; E-mail: [email protected]. I hope many of you avail
yourself of his services.
Airfoil Theory: When Clancy contacted me
about the omission of contact information for
his U/Tronics systems, he told me about the
book Theory of Wing Sections by Ira H. Abbot
and Alfred E Von Doenjoff of NASA,
published by Dover Publications.
The feature that would be most interesting
to modelers is in the last half of the book. The
section contains airfoil ordinates for almost
every known airfoil. With this information it
is easy to generate true scale airfoils for any
size of model. The information is given as a
percentage of wing chord for each plot point
on the airfoil (wing) surface.
The paperback edition of the book sells for
$12.95, and it is most likely available at most
large bookstores.
Clancy noted that he encountered an
interesting problem with wing location when
building his F/A-18A: a US Navy version of
the Hornet built by McDonnell Douglas. The
airfoil the company used, per the
aforementioned book, called for a sharp LE.
However, the company modified the airfoil by
rounding the LE, thereby reducing the actual
wing chord by 4-5 inches on the full-scale
airplane. Clancy noted that at a scale of
8.33:1, this change reduced the chord of the
model’s wing by roughly half.
Take caution if you are designing your
own Scale model. Make sure airfoils are done
correctly for all flying surfaces and that their
locations are correct.
Slip-Wing Fighter: In the August column I
asked for information about the Hawker
Hurricane slip-wing fighter. The response was
not overwhelming, but the replies I received
were excellent.
Joseph Valenta sent me copies of pages
from Aircraft Profile Publication No. 111 and
Squadron Signals Publication No. 72, both of
which contained photos of the Hawker
Hurricane Mk I slip-wing version in flight and
on the ground.
The photo captions for the slip wing in
flight (and on the ground) noted that the
airplane was one of an original batch of
Hurricanes, L1884. It was shipped to Canada
in 1983 to become Royal Canadian Air Force
#321.
The aircraft was later returned to the
United Kingdom and used by Hilland Sons
Ltd. for slip-wing experiments. It was
intended that the extra lift would enable the
Hurricane to operate from small fields and for
the top wing to be jettisoned once airborne.
Via E-mail, Kermit Walker and Tom Van
Vechten provided me with information noting
that the Hurricane’s upper wing not only
provided extra lift, but was used as an
auxiliary fuel tank that provided the aircraft
with increased flight range.
The upper wing was basically the same
size and shape as the lower wing and was held
in place with an “N” strut on each side of the
lower wing at the dihedral break point. The
upper wing attachment was supplemented
with a single strut on each side, connected to
the fuselage at the lower back corner of the
canopy. The pilot had redundant electrical and
mechanical disconnects, allowing him or her
to “slip” (disconnect) the wing at will.
Although the experiments met with some
success, they also encountered problems. One
of the issues was the additional weight of the
added wing, and the fuel it carried, on the
standard landing gear—especially when
taking off from the rough grass strips the
Royal Air Force was still using extensively
during World War II.
Another problem was getting the extra
wing to separate without destabilizing or
damaging the rest of the airframe. The slipwing
idea was ingenious in many respects, but
the difficulties encountered were just too
much. The project was abandoned after just
one or two prototypes were built and tested.
If you want to learn more about the slipwing
Hurricane, Tom Van Vechten suggests
obtaining the book Famous Fighters of the
Second World War (Volume 1, Hanover
House, 1960) by William Green and Peter M.
Bowers’ book Unconventional Aircraft
(Second Edition, Tab Books, Blue Ridge
Summit PA, 1960).
I thank Joe Valenta, Kermit Walker, and
Tom Van Vechten for providing the preceding
information. All we need now is for a Scale
modeler to tackle the job of putting together a
working model of the Hurricane slip-wing
fighter. Who will dare to do it?
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL
Scale events, contest reports, and especially
photos of CL Scale activity to me at the Email
address in the header or by regular mail
to 77-06 269th St., New Hyde Park NY 11040.
Remember that 35mm prints are okay to
submit and that digital photos must be
submitted on a CD.
Keep your landings good. MA