Mugwump (oz10782)

About this Plan

Mugwump. Coupe d'Hiver competition model.

Quote: "The South's finest exponent of Free Flight, and its grandaddy, figuratively and factually speaking, put his talents to produce an outstanding Coupe d'Hiver capable of winning the 1970 King Orange Internats and the Nats two years later! Design features usual sweeping plus rakish curves! Mugwump, by George Perryman.

Even at the old 80 grams
It was no piece of pie,
To get a little model
Very high up in the sky.

After years of designing
And chopping balsa wood
The simple Coupe was easy
To make fly pretty good.

But lo a demon lurked,
From France across the sea,
To bulge our little Coupes
With 100 grams weight, you see.

Back to the drawing board,
Back to the workshop, Fred,
Things ain't what they once were
With the 100 gram Ledd Sledd.

Mugwump was evolved from two previous designs over the past several years. It has had several contest wins including the 1970 King Orange International and 1972 Nats. The Nats was its first real test under the 100 gram rule.

I couldn't see any appreciable loss in glide with the increased weight; however, the reduced climb was readily apparent during test flying. In order to retain a brisk climb I had to take a little pitch out of the prop from 16 to 14 in. This helped some, but reduced prop run to about 25 seconds.

All of our planning and building goes for naught with a Coupe if one doesn't hit a thermal. Good fortune was with me for six flights at the Nats, and weather was perfect. The seventh flight crashed after a tremendous nine second effort, but it was enough to win the coveted Dick Black Memorial Trophy, established in memory of the modeler and author who was an inspiration to the many who knew hirn. Upon his death, the Chicago Aeronuts built this fine example of craftmanship, following Hardy Brodersen's design. It is awarded each year for high time at the Nats. Mugwump is probably the last of the simple Coupes. Auto surfaces, eight strands of 1/4 in Pirelli with big props are probably the winning combination hereafter. As you can see by the plans, it is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. I believe it is better to build rugged as long as aft end of fuselage, stab, and wing tips are kept light, than to build light all over and add ballast.

CONSTRUCTION: Mugwump is intended to be a competition model and is perhaps a bit too difficult for a young beginner, so I will only go into a general construction discussion.

Wing and stab: Construction is identical in each. The curved tips aren't difficult as they may appear. By laminating the 1/16 x 1/8 LE strips it makes shaping them easy. The TE is sturdy and by using 1/16 ribs, warping is reduced.

Fuselage: The fuselage forward portion is basically, four pieces of 1/8 sheet glued in a box with triangular corner braces. This has withstood several blown motors with no damage. The aft built-up section has a lot of little sticks but is easy to build and ends up light and strong. By squeezing it into a triangle, a few sticks are saved and it provides a good solid place to glue the sub-rudder..."

Mugwump, MAN, August 1983.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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