Wasp (oz13220)

About this Plan

Wasp. Biplane Wakefield duration model.

Note the original Wasp was a 1935 Canadian Wakefield design by Fred Rogerson. No plans of the original model exist, according to the article text. This here is a later redrawn plan from 2003, by Jan Rummery.

Quote: "For a model that achieved International fame for a flight of 72 seconds to win the Canadian Wakefield Cup in 1935 Fred J. Rogerson's WASP biplane is an enig-ma that has commanded attention from many aeromodellers over the past 68 years.

The contest at Toronto in August 1935 was beset by strong winds, gusting to 22 mph. Being tough and compact, the Wasp rode the breeze well, first for a 57 sec flight. Fred then increased the turns to 750 for the winning flight which went straight across the width of the airfield. At that time, Fred was Technical Advisor to the Hamilton branch of the Model Aircraft League of Canada, a post for which he was well qualified as he had been modelling for twenty years. His interests extended to scale free flight with models of the SE5 and Corben Ace and his outdoor stick 34 inch Firefly (oz11656) free flight duration model set a Canadian record of 20 minutes 36 secs.

Though competent as a designer, Fred Rogerson might never have come to International attention without Frank Zaic's inclusion of a three view in his Model Aeronautics Yearbook of 1937. In his own admission on the drawing, Frank stated that the drawing had been created from photographs and dimensions. The fact remains that there are no original Rogerson plans for the Wasp!

Just as the racey lines of this sesquiplane caught the Zaic eye, so in turn have modellers applied their own detail inter-pretations. These largely concern assem-bly of the wings to the fuselage and the airfoils, said to be the C-72 (ref Malkin airfoil book) but generally favoured to be 11% Clark Y. Otherwise, the Frank Zak skill of providing such a good impression of the Wasp has led to sever-al noteworthy enlargements from the miniature sketch to full size plans.

Among the first to scale-up and build was Don Knight a founder member of SAM in the U.K. who took his model to the US. SAM Champs at Westover in 1986. His Wasp was given to Dick Sherman, and it is still on show at Dick's remarkable Museum of aeromodelling in Plymouth New Hampshire. Another Wasp by Bill Warner was flown at Taft, California in 1996, while Keith Palmer's version has appeared at the SAM 1066 Champs Middle Wallop.

None of these experienced flyers would ever claim that the Wasp is a great dura-tion model. Transition from a fast climb into glide mode has presented problems that are due to the sharp taper on the wings, but this is compensated by the classic lines of a builder's model that oozes a nostalgic approach for anyone with a yen for vintage flying.

Jon Rummery of Coralville, Iowa, USA has closely studied the sketches and pho-tographs of Rogerson's original. In pro-ducing this set of plans he gave us the opportunity to "persuade" keen vintage enthusiast David Wotton to make anoth-er Wasp over the past Winter months. Yet to receive its interplane struts, which are to be fitted when the settings of Dave's separately mounted wings are estab-lished through tests when Spring eventu-ally arrives, his Wasp has provoked admiration from all who have seen it in the flesh, and will certainly continue to do so on the flying field.

Over to Jan Rummery's description of how he draughted the plan to make his Wasp.

In recent years I decided to draw plans for the designs that have fascinated me over the years. Fred Rogerson's 1935 Canadian Wakefield Winner had always captured my attention. After creating a complete set of plans it was essential that I built the model. The Wasp is such a beautiful piece of art. It's a model that anybody would be proud to have. Quite apart from its fine appearance it has excellent flying characteristics being tough and able to cope with strong winds. Every picture is worth a thou-sand words and study of the framework shows the elegance of this fighter-like biplane from the golden age of the thirties.

Construction: The construction is reasonably straightforward and simple. Crutch construction was used to build my fuselage. I put wax paper over the plans and pinned down the keel. FT1, FT2, FT3, FT4 Fuselage formers Fl through F16 are split in half and glued to the keel on one side.

Notch the formers for the keel and make sure the fuselage formers are at a 90° angle. I put one stringer down the middle to hold the fuselage formers in place, then moved this structure from the plans when dry. Fuselage formers and stringers to the other side of the keel were added before the remaining 1/16 square balsa stringers were fitted by notching the fuselage formers 1/32 deep at each mark. Ensure that stringers are glued in a neat straight line over the fuselage curves. A temporary keel in the cockpit area from FT1 to FT2 keeps the fuselage straight..."

Wasp, Aviation Modeller International, May 2003,

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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