1954 Wakefield Winner (oz10194)

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1954 Wakefield Winner. Copetition rubber model.

Quote: "WAY back in 1928, long before Carl Goldberg had designed his first 'pylon' or the wonder boy from Portland had dreamed up U-control, two apparently unconnected events in modeling history took place. The first was the introduction of the Wakefield, which quickly became the World's premier international model plane contest. The other was the birth of a son to Mr and Mrs King, of Melbourne, Australia. Twenty six years later, this same Australian youngster was destined to become the winner of the famed Wakefield rubber trophy - at the '54 contest held in the USA.

After Joe Foster won the Blue Riband trophy at the Granfield contest in Britain last year, Alan - who was then working as an industrial chemist in Melbourne - decided that he would definitely make the trip over to the States for the next Championships, either in the role of contestant or spectator. When the Aussie team-picking trials came round, he topped the list, but lack of official funds to send any team members over meant that he still had to paddle his own canoe - or rather slap down something like 400 bucks for a round-trip sea passage!

The five maximums (180 second) which the wandering Australian boy chalked up at this year's Wakefield were the culmination of years of contest flying experience, which have placed him in the forefront of his country's modeling activities. To be more specific, he was the Aussie National Champ in '51, '52, '53 and he achieved the distinction in the last contest of raking firsts in Wakefield, A.2 Glider, F/F Power, C/L Cargo, and a second in Indoor Stick.

The prettiest model ever to win the Wakefield, this sleek twin-finned octagonal-fuselage design impressed everyone at this year's contest, with its safe, smooth flying characteristics. Ticking off the salient features of the Australian winner, we see that a 20 x 24 in single-bladed folder is used; the take-off leg retracts; the geodetic stabilizer tips up 45 degrees! the polyhedral wing is parasol mounted and both flying surfaces have sheeted leading edges.

The wing is set well back ( trailing edge behind the mid-point of fuselage), balance is at 50% chord, and the nose plug is packed to give 3 degrees right and 1-1/2 degrees up thrust ( yes, we said up thrust! ). Main specifications are 8.3 ounces (2.82 of total is rubber, 219 sq. in. wing (NACA 6412 with more undercamber ), 74 sq in stab (thinned Clark Y), span 48 in, length 42-1/2 in, aspect ratio of 10:1.

The fully dimensioned (1/4 scale) plans on the facing page have been prepared from the designer's own working drawings and sketches made of the actual model at Suffolk AFB, Long Island - the scane of the last Championships on July 26. Construction is fairly conventional and will present no problems to anyone who has previously built a Wakefield..."

1954 Wakefield Winner, MAN, November 1954.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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