Tinsydes (oz10171)

About this Plan

Tinsydes. Free flight sport model. WWI style biplane, for .049 power, small diesels.

Scan from DBHL, cleanup by theshadow.

ref DBHL-7222.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 4/6/2022: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "Tinsydes. Eric Marsden presents a 36 in free flight biplane in the style of a WWI Scout for a 1 - 1.5cc diesel.

The fighting scouts of the First World War were the subject of schoolboy daydreams when I was a lad, originating in the collections of 'War Illustrated' which were kept in many homes until the demands of paper salvage, or the fear of incendiary bombs, in the next lot of unpleasantness, caused them to be turned out.

The various twopenny magazines beloved of the same generation of school lads often carried stories by WE Johns telling of the doughty deeds of Biggles and his friends, or by other writers following similar story lines.

So any lad, for whom aeroplanes were part of his hopes and ambitions, grew up with at least a nodding acquaintance with most of the types of aircraft involved in the European War, and in the Thirties might be able to build models of them either from 3-view drawings occasionally printed in the American 'pulps', or the semiprepared. Skyleada kits, and later, from the Frog Penguins, those remarkably accurate, well detailed, first 'plastic kits'.

From all this, blokes of my geriatricity (is that a word?) tend to retain our fondness for the kites of that era, (perhaps because we're sweet old fashioned things?) and a type which I always found attractive were the Martinsydes of 1916-17, from the Elephant on. So when I found four foam cores left over from a batch of WWI lookalike R/C models I'd built some years ago, and I wanted a knockabout biplane for free flight, I thought I'd give the standard choices of Pup, SE5, etc, a miss and go for a different shape. As result, this model can claim some slight resemblance to a Martinsyde profile.

'Slight' you may think to be the operative word, because the model was, under the aegis of my guide, Dr Glaucus Strabismus Eiborl, specifically drawn to be utilitarian - tailplane and rudder are plain sheet balsa, since the first year's flying quickly demonstrated the deficiencies of the open-structured version. The undercart is a simple strap-on job, capable of withstanding the most ignominious arrivals. The foam cored wings are 'plated' with 1/32 ply at the centre section, on both surfaces, and the cabane is made part of the fuselage doubler, to make truing up the wing mount very easy. It is also provided with a 1/32 ply platform, vee'd to fit the wing dihedral, which effectively braces the cabane, and has so far withstood all the near vertical arrivals resulting from my mistakes.

If you notice the positive incidence on the tailplane, you should know that as drawn, it is reduced from that of the prototype. The wing/tailplane set-up is intended to give a nice tail-high sit in the air, but my model required a touch of up-elevator, so I have halved the tailplane/datum-line angle.

Some time ago I picked up the idea that power models, which generally fly a little fast than most rubber jobs, or small electrics, generate enough downwash from the wings to require some consideration, and that bipes naturally create a more positive downwash. Since some folk think that the lift of wing equals the weight of air displaced downwards, it should also follow that the heavier model displaces more air, so that the 'down' angle of the wake might be greater..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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