All American Ensign (oz1196)

About this Plan

All American Ensign. Scale rubber powered model.

Quote: "NEWEST of postwar lightplanes, the Ensign has many new features, the most striking being the enormous bubble canopy which gives Unparalleled visibility. Construction is all-metal. The wing span is 33 feet and the fuselage is 22 feet long and 44 inches wide. Ailerons are Frise-type, self-balancing. The cockpit features an adjustable side-by-side seat, With optional dual controls. Upholstery is all leather, in blue or red. A full set of instruments is standard equipment. Self starter, generator, 12-volt battery, radio, muffler, and cabin heater are available as extras.

Landing gear is of the fixed tricycle type, equipped with differential hydraulic brakes operated from the rudder control foot pedals. The front wheel will caster 35° in either direction and is fitted with a hydraulic shock strut. Rear shocks are cantilever type.

The Ensign is powered with an 85-hp Continental, with fuel in-jector. A 25-gal, tank is provided; it weighs 1,000 lb empty, 1,550 lb loaded. Cruising speed is 112 mph for 500 miles. Maximum speed is 125 mph. It stalls at 50 mph, lands at 50 mph, climbs at 700 ft per minute to its service ceiling of 14,000 feet. The manufacturer claims it is spin-proof and stall-proof.

The author wishes to express thanks to Mr Gerald Adler of All-American Aircraft, for his co-operation in furnishing accurate scale drawings, photos, and data which made this exact reproduction possible.

Construction: Note that the plans are laid out in 1/4 inch squares to facilitate the plotting of curves, when drawing full-size layouts. The model shown has a span of 39 inches and it may be scaled to any size to suit any type of power. A double size (78 in span) would give slow, realistic free flight if powered by a Bullet or a 23. (We used 8 strands of prewar 14 in brown rubber to obtain slow flight in the 39 in model.)

Build two basic fuselage sides, one on top of the other, and assemble them as shown on the top view. Add bulkheads, and 1/16 sq hard stringers. Cut and cement the wing tongues and after adding the lower portions of bulkheads 4 and 5. cement a 1/8 thick rib 'A' to each wing butt. Soft balsa blocks are fitted to form the fillets as shown on the drawings and photos.

Carve the noseblock (2 pieces) roughly to shape and cement in place on the fuselage; to it fits the grille block, cut from 1/4 in hard sheet, using template No.1. Carve and sand to exact contour. Note that only a hole for the rubber motor is provided, to keep plenty of weight forward. A model using this set-up gives almost perfect balance when finished. The fuselage is covered with GM Silkspan; work carefully to get a smooth contour at the wing fillet.

Make the canopy over a balsa form. Celluloid may be dipped in cellomold; Plexiglass may be formed in boiling water, or, as we did, .010 celluloid can be slit to overlap and held tightly in place with sheet rubber, then cooked in boiling water, cooled, trimmed, and cemented in place.

Stabilizer and rudder are of conven-tional construction. Sand, cover, and cement in place on the fuselage before doping. Mounting of nose, wheel, pro-peller, and motor needs no special instruction except that they must be carefully constructed and mounted...

Update 16/04/2019: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

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