PSS Salamander (oz10736)
About this Plan
Heinkel he 162 Salamander. Scale PSS model.
Quote: "Try this 59in span Power Scale Soarer with a difference. PSS Salamander, by Neil McHardy.
The Heinkel HE 162 Salamander was an aircraft with a remarkable genesis; from drawing board to flying prototype was only a matter of months and with production estimates that would amaze most car manufacturers. The machine on paper would seem to be the ideal cheap, light fighter, but history proves that the reality of all this industriousness was not that the aircraft would be the 'defence of the Reich' fighter, but an aeroplane that was a perfect terror to fly for the inexperienced. Being of very steeply forward swept trailing edges and high wing loading, the tendency to side slip and tip stall was so bad that the huge anhedral tips and root stall strips were necessary to control these tendencies.
The wings were made entirely of wood due to the lack of prime materials and the fuselage was a composite of alloy and wood.
The prototype lost a wing flap on its acceptance flight, low level at over 500mph. The outcome of this was the death of the test pilot, but the decision to go ahead with the ambitious production run was agreed, and all this in late 1944. It is thought that around 300 were made but very few ever reached operational status mainly due to lack of trained pilots and lack of fuel, which was diesel oil.
After the war British test pilots flew these machines and found them to be surprisingly well sorted aircraft, providing important rules were never transgressed, mainly to do with landing speeds and rudder operation at high speed.
When I first saw the Volksjaeger (people's fighter) I was attracted to the beautiful fuselage shape, even though it had a hump on its back, but this made it to me an ideal candidate for a semi scale model, and I was rewarded with an unusual and, after a few early difficulties, eventually a wonderful flying machine. The final accolade for me was the winning of a PSS competition at Rivington Pike in 1989 with this model, something which still gives me a great sense of achievement.
Fuselage construction: If you have built a model boat before then this job should be an absolute doddle! I prefer not to build onto the drawing so all the formers were marked on to a centre line drawn onto the building board. Now with all your formers carefully cut out and the horizontal and vertical centre lines marked boldly on them cut them all in half across the horizontal line. Take the lower keel piece and slot it into the formers - it should have all the former positions marked on it. Now, with it all assembled, dry pin it down to the centre line marked on the building board and square everything up. When it's all secure to the board, glue all the keel/former joints with pva, wriggling them to get the glue in.
Plank the structure with medium soft 1/8 balsa working up from the building board on either side. Don't forget to transfer the holding down pins to the outside. Use plenty of pins to secure the planks which will have to be spliced at either end to make up the length; you can use cyano for this. Don't be tempted into using cyano for the planking though, as the resulting hard ridges are impossible to sand off afterwards. Use aliphatic resin (yellow pva) or Loctite wood bond rapid, as these are very easy to sand..."
Salamander, Radio Modeller, December 1993.
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Supplementary file notes
Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
Corrections?
Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)?
That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction
-
(oz10736)
PSS Salamander
by Neil McHardy
from Radio Modeller
December 1993
58in span
Scale Glider R/C Military Fighter
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 06/12/2018
Filesize: 851KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: Circlip, RFJ
Downloads: 1685
-
Heinkel_He_162 | help
see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
------------
Test link:
search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)
ScaleType: This (oz10736) 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/Heinkel_He_162
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.



Do you have a photo you'd like to submit for this page? Then email admin@outerzone.co.uk
User comments
No comments yet for this plan. Got something to say about this one?Add a comment
- PSS Salamander (oz10736)
- Plan File Filesize: 851KB Filename: Salamander_PSS_oz10736.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 955KB Filename: Salamander_PSS_oz10736_article.pdf
- help with downloads
Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.
Terms of Use
© Outerzone, 2011-2025.
All content is free to download for personal use.
For non-personal use and/or publication: plans, photos, excerpts, links etc may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Outerzone with appropriate and specific direction to the original content i.e. a direct hyperlink back to the Outerzone source page.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's owner is strictly prohibited. If we discover that content is being stolen, we will consider filing a formal DMCA notice.