Swifty (oz13928)

About this Plan

Swifty. All-sheet rubber sport model.

Quote: "Just Call Me Swifty! By Albert L Lewis, Secretary, Academy of Model Aeronautics.

DID YOU EVER see a scared jack-rabbit? One with wings? Well, that's Swifty, folks. Actually Swifty embodies much of the same construction found in indoor gliders, so beginning modelers as well as old-timers will find the ship easy to construct.

FUSELAGE: The motor stick, or fuselage, is formed from soft 1/32 sheet balsa soaked in water and then bent around a 1/2 in diameter rod or dowel. The wood is held in place while drying in a moderately warm oven, by wrappings of cotton gauze bandage. Front and rear end plugs are fashioned from soft scrap balsa.

When dry, the rear end of the motor stick is notched, top and bottom, and small squares of balsa are cemented to the rear plug as illustrated. The rear hook runs through the rear plug and is bent in a loop.

With this much accomplished, your assembly line production moves on to the landing gear and first step is to make the pant struts from 1/8" by 1/2" hard balsa. These are streamlined by sanding with fine paper. Then a strip of 1/64 square (or approximately) bamboo is cemented to the leading edge of these two struts.

Wheel pants are made up of three pieces of 1/16 sheet balsa laminated. The half-inch diameter wheels are cut from 1/32 sheet balsa.

Wing: The wing is built in two sections from 1/32 sheet balsa stock. The airfoil is obtained by bending the flat-shaped wing over ribs cut from 1/16 sheet stock as indicated in the plans. There is no rib used for the center section, rather the wing mount serves as the center rib. This wing mount is made from medium 3/32 balsa, sanded and shaped to fit the fuselage.

A saddle of 1/16 sheet balsa is bent in the same manner as the motor stick. This saddle, when cemented to the wing mount and provided with two small hooks of fine music wire on both sides as illustrated, holds the wing to the motor stick. Flat rubber bands keep the saddle firm.

While all this is drying, we suggest you work on the tail assembly which is simple, although quite rakish..."

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