Peanut Cannon (oz15411)
About this Plan
Peanut Cannon. Radio control sport biplane model. Wingspan 13 in, wing area 104 sq in.
Quote: "Peanut Cannon, by Tom Binkley.
Ken Willard was a talented and prolific model designer. His ever present grin, his monthly column and many of his model designs are well known to the readers of this magazine.
Perhaps less well known is Bill Cannon, who was an electrical engineer, manufacturer, technical writer and publisher. In 1955 he started C&S Electronics which grew to become Cannon Electrics, and finally Cannon Radio Control Systems, an American manufacturer of digital proportional radio control components. For some years in the 1970's and 1980's Cannon was known worldwide for the smallest, lightest, sophisticated Radio Control systems ever manufactured.
In 1974 the brag was made that their 4 channel flight pack weighed only 10.4 ounces, and by 1981 they advertised a 3 channel flight pack under 3-1/2 ounces.
In June 1976 Ken Willard published plans for the Cannonshot (oz1247) a 16 in span biplane that was designed around Bill Cannon's latest, light weight innovation, a 2 channel 'brick', a combination receiver and 2 servos.
There is no indication of the model weight on the original plans, but we, today, would probably consider it to be heavy. And compared to currently available R/C components, the word “brick” really takes on graphic meaning.
Long intrigued by the design, I built a reduced size Cannonshot some time back. Presented here is a lighter, revised, Peanut size version, the Peanut Cannon.
Power is from the popular 18-11 2000kv, 10g outrunner motor spinning a GWS 5043 prop. The Peanut Cannon requires a slim 300 mAh, 7.4V LiPo battery and a small, light ESC. For guidance I chose the Orange R415 2g receiver and two Ultra Micro servos.
Building the Peanut Cannon is really easy. Start by cutting the fuselage sides, doublers, bulkhead, battery tray, fin, rudder, stab and elevator out of 1/16 balsa, and the landing gear reinforcements and firewall out of 1/16 ply.
Carefully position and glue the doublers and 1/8 square balsa firewall braces to the right and left fuselage sides. Trial fit the bulkhead in its place and the battery tray on top of the side doublers. When aligned, glue in place. Trial fit, then glue the firewall.
Install cross grain 1/16 balsa fuselage top sheeting from the firewall back to the bulkhead. Sand the inside surface of the fuselage tails to a slight taper, so that when clamped and glued together the fuselage width, where the rudder attaches will be 1/16.
Align carefully and glue the rear of the fuselage sides together. Sand a bevel on mating edges of stab and elevator and rudder and not only the fin, but also the fuselage back edge. Glue the stab in place..."
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Update 5/8/2024: Replaced this plan with a scan of the original drawing, thanks to TomBinkley.
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(oz15411)
Peanut Cannon
by Tom Binkley
June 2013
13in span
Electric R/C Biplane
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 16/06/2024
Filesize: 158KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: theshadow
Downloads: 647
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User comments
It's really nice to see mention of Mr. Bill Cannon and of course Ken Willard as well. One thing I would add to the good biographical info here is that Mr. Cannon was also a model aircraft designer and flyer.In 1964 or '65 I was 9 or 10 years' young and the first R/C gizmo I ever saw was at our beloved local, the Palisades Hobby Shop,in pacific Palisades, California, a C&S transmitter with its deep green anodized aluminum case. It was either a reed set and/or a single-channel button pusher paired with an escapement.
A few years later us teenagers were treated to a tour of Mr. Cannon's shop/factory on Saticoy Street deep in the San Fernando Valley. It was a great honor for us!
In 1981 I bought the new Cannon radio you see alongside our cat in the photo [pic 003]; in the summer of 1990 Mr Cannon personally updated my system to "AMA Gold Seal" requirements. By then he and his wife Charley had moved to a new home up in Simi Valley and they welcomed me into their "work at home" operation: his business and her "Charley's R/C Goodies" (or something like that!) accessories business.
John Rood - 15/07/2024
Bill Cannon was an interesting guy--trying to get as much weight as possible out of the then existing RC systems. I bought a Cannon radio and transmitter in ~1988 or so. I used it in a helium filled blimp. I'd foolishly promised a friend who staged shows in a college auditorium that I could build something that would fly over the audience during the show. Easy peasy these days--but not so in 1988. I got it done.
Mike Myers - 16/07/2024
Steve, I was happy to see the Peanut Cannon plans on Outerzone. Attached is the original plan. The Peanut Cannon pictured in the article is still in good flyable condition. As can be seen in the Vimeo video link from the construction article, see: https://vimeo.com/67834896 it is a busy, active flyer!
Tom Binkley - 05/08/2024
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- Peanut Cannon (oz15411)
- Plan File Filesize: 158KB Filename: Peanut_Cannon_oz15411_.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 905KB Filename: Peanut_Cannon_oz15411_article.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 523KB Filename: Peanut_Cannon_oz15411_previous.pdf
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Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
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