Chinook (oz14274)

About this Plan

Chinook. Radio control sport model, for IC ducted fan with .60 engine.

Quote: "Chinook, by Bill Gillespie.

Chinook - definition - 'a warm, moist wind blowing from the sea to land in winter and spring on the northern Pacific Coast.' The start of the chinook season in Alberta signals the end of a long, usually harsh and sometimes depressing and boring winter. In many ways my involvement in fanjets is comparable to the effect of a 'chinook' on my modeling activities. I have been building models of one sort or another for as long as l can remember, with my first R/C project a Goldberg Senior Falcon (oz6137) being completed in 1967. Since that time, I have tried sport planes, pattern planes, sailplanes, seaplanes and Stand-off Scale. All were thoroughly enjoyable, but somehow in the last few years I felt that I had slipped into a rut.

Then in 1981 I built a Byron Originals Mig 15 powered by an OPS .65 RE engine. My modeling world changed overnight! What fascination! What frustration! What thrills! A Byron A-4 Skyhawk was next, powered by the same engine. More excitement! There is something about the noise a fanjet makes as it goes by from a long diving approach that simply cannot be described! I know that it sometimes makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and my mouth gets so dry I couldn't spit if I tried! (This guy must be a weirdo, you say well, try it for yourself and see what I mean!)

While the Mig 15 and Skyhawk are both superb models, I like doing my own thing, and so I decided to design a 'sport' fan jet, a non-scale model about the size of a large .60 class pattern plane.

The primary design objectives were as follows:

Operation from .grass fields; construction by conventional methods and materials; relatively low wing loading; fixed tricycle landing gear; upright engine installation; air intake above the wing (to avoid sucki ng dirt, grass and debris. into the fan); utilize Byron Originals fan unit and tuned pipe.

After several false starts, the basic concept for the Chinook was finalized. I wish that I could say that the design was based on complex space age aerodynamic formulas augmented by extensive wind tunnel testing by NASA - but that was not the case. Instead, I used two principles that have proven invaluable over the years KISS - meaning 'keep it simple, stupid,' and ILAR - meaning 'it looks about right.'

The need to keep the proper relationship between the tail pipe length, the engine and fan location, the Center of Gravity and the Center of Lift resulted in a swept wing design. The fin and stabilizers were also swept in order to provide a good tail moment. (Besides which, the swept tail matches the wing.) Flaps were included in order to enhance short landing capabilities... "

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Scan by MarkD, cleanup by Circlip.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction