Renard R.31 (oz13976)

About this Plan

Renard R.31. Rubber scale model of the Belgian reconnaissance plane.

Quote: "How you can create a most realistic flying scale model of one of Belgium's formost observation planes. It is an excellent flier. Renard R-31, by Robert Harrison.

BELGIUM may be a small country but its planes rank among the world's best as far as performance is concerned. The Renard factory is a relatively new concern in the manufacture of high performance military aircraft, but even so the Renard R-31 and R-32 can hold their own with any similar military craft. The R-31 and the R-32 both have the same basic design but the R-31 has a Rolls Royce Kestral engine while the R-32 has a Gnome-Rhone Mistral Major power plant. We shall describe the construction of the R-31 since its long sleek nose cowling. lends itself very well to model building.

The real Renard R-31 is intended for high speed, long distance reconnaissance duties. It carries wireless and photo-graphic apparatus in addition to three machine-guns. The construction is en-tirely in metal with the exception of the covering. A maximum speed of 200 mph is claimed, while the climb to 19,700 ft. takes 14 min 34 sec. Main dimensions are; span 47 ft 3 in, length 30 ft 2 in, wing area 345 sq ft. Now let's get down to the actual building of this interesting foreign machine.

Wings: Both wing panels are laid out full size. Cover the plans with a sheet of wax paper and pin a piece of 3/16 x 3/16 strip balsa in place for a leading edge. Pin a strip of 1/8 x 1/16 balsa in place for the trailing edge. Trace the outline of the wing tip pieces on a sheet of balsa 1/16 thick and cut to shape with the edge of a broken razor blade. Cement these pieces in po-sition as shown on the plans.

While these are drying, you can be cutting the ribs from a sheet of 1/16 sheet balsa wood. There are four different size ribs shown on plate 2 besides the false rib. Cement these ribs in position and after these have dried a while, cement the top spar 1/8 x1/16 in the slots provided in the ribs. Lay the wings aside and go to the tail units. Incidentally you can join the two sections and give each wing tip 7/16 in dihedral and allow this to dry while you're working on the tail surfaces..."

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