Lite Bipe (oz14035)

About this Plan

Lite Bipe. Radio control fun fly biplane model.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 28/8/2022: Added article, thanks to Pit.

Quote: "Here it is, folks - probably the ugliest model airplane ever designed, and an excellent example of 'form follows function.' Every iota of crudity and ugliness is there to make this aircraft a competition fun fly winner. Lite Bipe, by John Hunton.

The next time someone asks you what building model airplanes has to do ith modern life, just tell them that we modelers are way ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to thinking light. While everybody else loafs around feeling virtuous consuming their lite colas, lite ice creams, and lite beers, we get to fly light airplanes. That's light as in ultralight, high-performance models. That's light as in Lite Bipe.

Just how light is Lite Bipe? If you take off the low-cholesterol items like the engine and landing gear wires, you're left with only about two pounds of balsa and MonoKote. There's no fat in this 3-1/2 lb, .40-powered competition fun fly biplane, just a whole lot of performance.

Lite Bipe uses a conventional, old-timey trussed balsa frame. While this may seem like a bit of trouble, it's definitely the way to go if you want things light. And for all its dynamite performance, Lite Bipe is a simple model to build. The external control system (a la Ford Trimotor) is the time-saver. There are no hatches, no removable wing, no complications to worry about and the extra drag is actually an asset with this type of model. More about that later.

There's a revolution going on in fun fly model design. Whether we like it or not, the new high-performance, ultralight machines have finally made the ubiquitous Ugly Stick obsolete after years of dominance. Even trainer designs are no longer competitive in most fun fly events.

Biplanes present a special design challenge. Typically using cantilevered wings and decorative struts, these models seldom match the structural efficiency of the light, wire-trussed wings and fuselages of the World War I biplanes they replicate. By combining moment-jointed interplanar struts for torsional stiffness with the trussed main spars and fuselage sides noted above, Lite Bipe proves that much lighter design is possible.

The wide-apart main landing gear gives excellent ground handling in taxi events. I used a tricycle gear originally, but even the few ounces of extra weight proved unwelcome, and the tri-gear just didn't look right on a bipe. Not only that, but Northern Virginia RC (NVRC) fun fly rules mandate a tail-dragger. So I changed the configuration the night before the first NVRC biplane fun fly - and won the event... "

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