Globe Swift (oz11521)

About this Plan

Globe Swift. Rubber scale model.

Note this plan also appeared in "Air Trails: Classic Flying Models, Fall 1979".

Quote: "THIS postwar deluxe airplane, offered by the Globe Aircraft Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas, includes many new features not found in conventional light aircraft. Some of these are the luxurious cabin and instrument panel with dual controls and side-by-side seating, retracting hydraulic electric landing gear and flaps, trimming flaps and anti-stall slots. Construction is all-metal. It is powered with the Continental 85-hp motor and includes a starter and generator as standard equipment. Skis or floats may be used, making it adaptable to any climate or locality.

Due to clean design, its maximum speed is 140 mph at sea level. Cruising speed is 125 mph, landing speed with flaps 42 mph, without flaps 47 mph. Rate of climb is 600 ft per min; service ceiling 14,000 ft; range 750 miles.

The Swift has a span of 29 ft 2 in, an over-all length of 19 ft 7 in, and a height of 9 ft 9 in. It is fitted with 6.00 x 6 wheels and hydraulic brakes.

Our model plans were drawn to exact scale from the manufacturer's plans, even to the incidence of the wing and stabilizer. A control-line model or a rubber-powered model may be built, but heavier construction should be used throughout for a controlled model.

Begin construction by laying out full-size pencil drawings to the desired size. The model shown in the photos has a 30 inch span.

Lay out two fuselage sides, one on top of the other, where the heavy lines are shown ; assemble the sides and fit bulkheads in place. Add stringers and drawing paper cabin outlines. Carve nose blocks roughly to shape and cement in place. Cement a stiff rib, cut from 'A' pattern to each side of the fuselage and fit the Wing tongues in place. These extend from the center line to the outer edge shown on the top view. Add small blocks of soft balsa to form the fillets and carve to shape. Carefully build up the stabilizer platform. Check for alignment and sand the entire structure smooth. Cover with wet Silkspan, which allows large areas to be covered with one piece gnd gives smooth fillets. Apply two coats of clear dope to the paper and sand lightly. Finish balsa parts by rubbing cement into the wood and sanding smooth.

Stabilizer and rudder construction are quite simple; only be careful to prevent warping. Apply one coat of thinned clear dope, and cement the parts to the fuselage. Watch carefully while the cement sets to prevent poor alignment due to uneven shrinking of the cemented joints.

The wing half should be drawn on tracing paper, so that by reversing it you will have a right and left panel exactly alike. Carefully cut ribs from quarter-grained balsa, spars, and tips from hard balsa and assemble. When dry, carve and sand leading and trailing edges to shape. The tips should taper from a rounded edge where they join the leading edge to a knife edge at the trailing edge joint. The well to take the tongue joint is built into the wing. Make sure it is a tight fit and that each wing has 1-1/2 inches of dihedral before covering the wing panels. Use wet Silkspan to cover the wings and when dry give two coats of thinned dope.

Build up landing gear struts as shown, attaching the wire to the wing spar and leaving some allowance for springing backwards. Attach tail wheel and cement well to the bottom stringer.

The entire model was given two coats of silver dope and the trim was added by flowing black dope through a ruling pen to form the outlines and filling in with a brush. Note that the rear windows are of dark blue celluloid or plastic. Clear celluloid may be doped on the inside to give this effect if no colored material is available.

An easy method of fitting the windows is as follows: Cut the celluloid to approximate size, leaving a 1/8 margin extending on all sides: fit this in place and mark exact outline with a wax pencil. Cut to shape and rub off the pencil marks with a cloth, then cement lightly in place.

The choice of a propeller is optional, but both scale and flying props are shown. Use eight strands of 3/16 rubber for the motor. Our model balanced perfectly, but due to varying weights of material some small weight might be needed in the nose or tail as the case may be.

Select a patch of high grass for test flying, starting with hand glides and working up to powered, flight as you gradually become familiar with the model's flight tendencies. Tail surfaces may be warped slightly to trim the model correctly."

Globe Swift, Air Trails, December 1946.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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