Firebaby (oz15471)

 

Firebaby (oz15471) by Jim Walker 1950 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Firebaby. Control line trainer model. Simple profile all-sheet design. Wingspan 19 in, for 1/2A engine.

Note this is not a complete fullsize plan. This here is a scan of the detailed instructions. The kit was highly prefabricated and was advertised as "The Plane You Buy Already to Fly", so never needed or included a plan drawing. We are posting this up here now in the hope that someone can add a scan of the parts templates.

Note photo of completed Firebaby model [pic 004] by rdw777 was found online at https://www.coxengineforum.com/t18249-jim-walker-firebaby and shows original parts and colour scheme.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "Hi Steve, I recently got these assembly instructions of the original Jim Walker Firebaby. I and thousands of other American kids did their first control line solo with a Firebaby. My dad put it together for me. We bought a Cox .049 Baby Bee for power. The hobby shop owner didn't like the supplied sheet metal prop (for good reason), took it out of the box and threw in a Top Flite nylon one for no extra charge.

I think I was about 10 so it would have been around 1960. My first attempts were typical up-and-down over-control oscillations ending in crashes. On the 4th or 5th try, the outboard wing broke off when it hit the ground, but Dad thought it could still fly with only the inboard wing. He started it and launched it again; I kept it airborne for 8 laps and was hooked for life!

Firebaby kits are real collectors' items and sell for hundreds of dollars. Very few complete planes remain because, like mine, they were all crashed by their rookie pilots. Being made of balsa, they didn't hold up well over time.

I had these instructions scanned by Fedex and cleaned them up with Photoshop. The original is printed on both sides of an 11" x 17" sheet. A later version of the Firebaby used a plastic fuselage in place of the balsa one.
Regards, Mark Gerber"

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Firebaby (oz15471) by Jim Walker 1950 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz15471)
    Firebaby
    by Jim Walker
    from AJ Aircraft Co
    1950 
    19in span
    IC C/L
    clean :)
    formers incomplete :(
  • Submitted: 26/07/2024
    Filesize: 629KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: MarkGerber
    Downloads: 300

Firebaby (oz15471) by Jim Walker 1950 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg
Firebaby (oz15471) by Jim Walker 1950 - pic 004.jpg
004.jpg

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User comments

There are some good pages on the history of the Firebaby at: www.americanjuniorclassics.com/firebaby… in there it says the wing and stab were re-used from the same manufactured parts used in the AJ Pursuit model, and the fuselage was a cut down part from the 404 Interceptor. So presumably that would help with drawing up a set of templates. Although the sheet metal fin/rudder part would be new, I guess.
SteveWMD - 13/08/2024
good link about Firebaby ;-)
some pictures ;-) https://www.coxengineforum.com/t12725...
olivier - 13/08/2024
Indee, I was one of those "thousands" who made their first control line solo with a Firebaby. Mine was a gift from my father for my 8th birthday. I still have the OK Cub .049 that came with the model, it's very anemic from lack of compression due to extensive use, but still runs, I keep it as it holds many good memories.
Mark Storey - 13/08/2024
Hi Steve, Attached is a photo [main pic] and a link to my Firebaby flying after it had been restored…. This is the same plane in the photo [004] that Mark Gerber initially submitted to Outerzone….. It was restored to the same as would have been received from American Junior including its original Atwood Wasp .049 engine…. Only the prop was changed for a more modern one for flying…..I’m working on drawings that may be useful for replicating a Firebaby and will send them when finished. Video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oyajRC3cgbI
Robert Williams - 01/10/2024
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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

This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.

 

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