Super Bee (oz14507)

About this Plan

Super Bee. Sport biplane model, for either radio control or free flight. Wingspan 27-1/2 in, for 0.5 - 0.8 cc engines. Simple all-sheet design.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 19/4/2023: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "One of the happiest times for a father is to see his children take an interest in aeromodelling and to be able to watch them getting obvious enbjoyment from the hobby. I have very sharp memories of my friend David Toyer's son Stephen and the son of our Dutch friends Map and Frans having a whale of a time with some free flight models at the Nationals. Two of the models were Mills-powered all sheet biplanes and these has dozens of flights. One still exists - in a very dilapidated state!

Initially, the model had been designed for the Cox Golden Bee .049 engine and single channel, rudder only radio control flying and it performed well in this form, being capable of mild aerobatics with the rubber-driven Elmic Conquest escapement.

'Super Bee' is a logical, if belated follow on from the original design and this too, is suitable for both free flight and R/C applications. For R/C, you can use two channels for rudder and elevator, with mini servos. Amerang distribute a two channel Hitec outfit with a micro receiver at a very competitive price. It operates on 27MHz frequencies, but I have flown with the system without interference problems. (A club colleague regularly flies with the same type of outfit with no interference worries). Obviously, it depends on the location of your flying field. Don't try it if you are close to a major trunk road. The two function transmitter has dry batteries, but will take Nicad pencells and the receiver will function well on a 50 mAh 4.8 volt pack or larger.

A diesel engine may be used for the R/C version and for the free flight model, it is highly recommended. The flexibility and reliable running over a wide rpm range makes these engines ideal for free flight, the Mills and small PAW engines being particularly good in this respect.

Building: Choose your wood carefully, equal quality over the whole sheet, light, but not brittle and similar standard for the two fuselage sides. There are few differences between R/C and F/F versions, the main one relates to the installation of radio equipment and the alternative diesel/glo engines. You could have banded-on tail surfaces for the free flight model, but you can use the fixed surface of the R/C type and apply ali hinges in place of the 'free' hinges and make small trimming adjustments by bending the elevators up or down (fit the rudder trim tab for both types).

Before constructing the all-sheet wing panels, I prefer to give both sides of the cut outer panels a coat of dope and sanding sealer, smoothed down with fine sandpaper. It is easier to do it at this stage, before the ribs are added.

Note that the ribs extend just beyond the balsa panels, allowing you to pin the ends to the board before attaching the sheet. Use PVA white glue for this purpose and remember to slope the root ribs for the dihedral angle. A 1/16 sq piece of spruce, or very hard balswood is added to the leading edge of the lower wing to make it more ding proof.

When the panels are set, remove them from the board, sand the root ends, join the panels, propping up for the correct dihedral. The centre joint is reinforced on top with a strip of nylon soaked in PVA glue and slots are then cut in the underside of the dihedral braces. Trim the rib ends, add the lower wing leading and trailing edge reinforcement and sand wings overall.

Fuselage: The 1/16 fuselage side have 1/8 sq longerons, 1/8 in lower wing housing reinforcement and 1/4 in nose doublers added on the insides. The nose end construction will depend on the engine being used. Join the sides from F1 to F4, bring together the sides at the rear, fit F8 and join the chamfered tail osts. Add 1/8 cross-pieces and F5 to F7. The rear deck has 3/32 x 1/8 stringers.

Make up the centre pylon from a liteply core and 1/16 sides, round off the front and rear edges. Glue the top wing mounting platform to the top of the pylon, possibly reinforcing the joint between the pylon and platform with a smooth fillet of suitable filler - the choice is yours. Formers F3A and F4A are glued to the fuselage, then the 1/8 sq strips and the top coaming steeted with 1/16. Cut out a slot and fit the pylon..."

Supplementary file notes

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