Vagabond (oz10353)

 

Vagabond (oz10353) by Jerry Reiss 1949 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Vagabond. Scale model, either for free-flight with rubber power, or for control line with Infant engine. Wingspan 22 in.

Note: this plan and the larger 33in Vagabond (oz10354) both appeared in the same Air Trails article, titled "3 Vagabonds" in August 1949.

Quote: "3 Vagabonds, by Jerry Reiss.

WHILE many clever 'compromise' airplanes have been worked out both in full scale and in miniature, designers of both know that such ships seldom match the single purpose machine in its specialty. In our field particularly, the development of such power plants as CO2 engines and baby gas engines, has led to all manner of combination deals with two or even three of these basic methods of propulsion.

It is not possible usually to prepare an original design expressly for each type of power plant without having wide variations, particularly in size, that result in as many entirely different layouts as there are power plants. Yet the Piper Vagabond is one airplane that is suited to designing for various power plants without radical departures for each power plant. It has large wing area and general proportions that make for a good sport U-control. By taking liberties with the tail area it can be made into a stunt scale model. With a light wing and some dihedral it performs very well as a rubber-powered flying scale airplane. This version should fly free-flight, too, with the Infant.

The small rubber- or Infant-powered Vagabond was scaled up 50% for U-control with engines of .199 to .29 displacement. Our local hobby shop says these are popular engines so why not give their owners a break? We'd just love to say engines of from .09 to .45, and so on, but frankly our Ohlsson 23 with hot fuel makes all the rumpus our fragile nerves can stand! You may be a real hot-rock flyer who can cope with a faster job.

One important feature of this three-in-one deal is the duplication of construction to the greatest practical degree in all ships. The fuselage is identical in both little models; the materials are heavier in the bigger ship, with a few points beefed up to stand the greater abuse. The big ship varies from its little K&B brother in that a semi-stunt airfoil is employed, and its tail area has been increased for quick, positive control.

Excepting a slight increase in landing gear length, the Infant job is exact scale. If you increase its tail area 50%, using a non-stunt airfoil, the big ship will be exact scale, too. The rubber job uses a light built-up wing with added dihedral and oversize tail area for stability. At any rate, they are three entirely different yet closely related Vagabonds, which will compete strongly against specialized airplanes.

Also, since completion of the plans, the Baby Spitfire at .045 and the Herkimer Cub .049 have become available; presumably these power plants would turn the Infant sport job into a hot performer. Use of a stunt airfoil and larger nippers should make stunting easy and practical.

As for construction, let's first consider the fuselage. The two small models employ 1/32 sheet sides, and 1/16 sheet bulkheads; the big job uses 1/8 sheet sides and bulkheads, with the two bulkheads beneath the wing being laminated from double thicknesses to give rigidity and resistance to crack-ups. Note that the scale fuselage tapers slightly from the. Window-line up to the top of the cabin,and down to the bottom of the cabin.

For the big airplane it is necessary, therefore, to use two separate pieces of sheet for each side, one above the window line, and the other below. One sheet is used on both small ships, the taper being achieved by creasing the thin wood..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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Vagabond (oz10353) by Jerry Reiss 1949 - model pic

Datafile:

ScaleType:
  • Piper_PA-15_Vagabond | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
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    ScaleType: This (oz10353) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-15_Vagabond
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

Vagabond (oz10353) by Jerry Reiss 1949 - pic 003.jpg
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Vagabond (oz10353) by Jerry Reiss 1949 - pic 004.jpg
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