Sea Vixen (oz15617)

 

Sea Vixen (oz15617) by Mike Spencer 1994 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

DH Sea Vixen (PSS Sea Vixen). Radio control slope soarer model. Wingspan 33.5 in, wing area 248 sq in.

Quote: "After a period of many years, during which his Sea Vixen project lapsed, Mike Spencer resurrected the design to produce a fine flying model of this classic aeroplane.

Since I first served at RNAS Yeovilton I had admired the Sea Vixen which was then (1968) phasing out of frontline RN service. Ever since, I have had it in the back of my mind to build a model of the type. Many years passed and other models were built and flown but it was not until I found a book by Philip Birtles in the RAE Farnborough library 'Postwar Military Aircraft: Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen' (publisher Ian Allen) that I started to make some outline drawings initially for a small PSS project but with the eventual aim of building something larger at a later date. While reading this book I also had a close encounter with the RAE airframe which Andy Sephton had flown down from Llanbedr for continuation training with a live pilot instead of the RC system in its target role. (Now that would impress the LMA!).

I obtained some close up photographs and outline views with the idea of generating drawings from scratch but was fortunate when posted back to Yeovilton in 1989 to discover a back copy of that other most useful reference 'Aviation News' (Vol 2 No 10) in a local plastic models specialist shop. This contained some excellent scale information and reasonable drawings at 1/72 scale in its 'Warpaint' feature on the centre pages and, with another fullsize aircraft adjacent to the Fleet Air Arm museum only 3 miles away from my workshop, I no longer had any excuse to delay this project (except 2 sons, a dog, an old house and a steady stream of fullsize helicopter students!).

Development: As a first stage, I built a maquette (profile skeleton) out of [A," balsa sheet of about 8 inch span. This was thrown around the garden on calm evenings to confirm the rough location of the CG after calculating the aerodynamic Centre of Pressure. Although this was a very basic 'model', instant recognition and comments in the Squadron confirmed my impression of how even this simple outline conveyed the character of the real aeroplane. It seemed that I would be able to get away with quite large departures from true scale yet retain the 'essence' of Vixen. (Is it just coincidence that, as I write this, my wife has just had to bath the dog after he insisted on rolling in fox dung?!)

The Model: I drew up a set of outlines for a model of some 32 in span which gave a root chord of just under 13 in. I decided to try blue foam for the only reason that it was a new material to me and offered the prospect of applying resin directly to the foam.

The plan view suggests a double LE taper inboard of the wing fold hinge resulting from the engine intakes and fuselage blending. Closer study of the original showed a 'wing-root' outline inboard of the engine intake which matched the main LE so this enabled a barely noticeable 'cheat' by keeping the wing to a single taper and disguising the root area by painting the engine intakes matt black.

After setting up a root template on my cutting board and securing the wingtip end of the cutting bow to the point where the extended LE and TE would meet, I cut a pair of cores by the single template method which is probably the easiest way of forming this sharply swept and tapered mainplane. As an experiment I tried vacuum bagging a brown paper/resin skin directly onto an early test piece of foam. This produced a high finish (SRBP) which was very light but for the eventual model I chickened out and reverted to obechi veneer as I didn't want to break too much new ground in one go!

Wingtips were from soft balsa sheet with LE and TE added to taste. The wings were joined by a constant chord centre section the same width as the fuselage. This was glassed directly over the foam and neatly connects the two veneered panels. There is a lot of strength here and large holes have been excavated for the RC gear. The area between the booms was corrected simply by extending the TE with 3/16 sheet to match the scale planform... "

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 27/10/2024: Replaced this plan, thanks to Circlip. On this version the outer control snake (that did not appear on the original plan) has been removed.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
Previous scan version.

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Sea Vixen (oz15617) by Mike Spencer 1994 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz15617)
    Sea Vixen
    by Mike Spencer
    from RC Model World
    October 1994 
    33in span
    Scale Glider R/C Military Fighter
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 09/10/2024
    Filesize: 477KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: Circlip, RFJ
    Downloads: 422

ScaleType:
  • De_Havilland_Sea_Vixen | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz15617) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Sea_Vixen
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

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User comments

Plan two of two
Circlip - 25/10/2024
The RCMW plan appears to show two 'snakes' to the ailerons. Not sure how this appeared, there were only the inner ones on my original. There is only the thin aileron at the TE, the 'Scale' outline was only a penline cheat. Glad this has appeared on Oz as my original is lost in an old computer. I no longer have this model but can and will dig out some photos. Rgds,
Mike S - 25/10/2024
Hi Mary and all at Oz, I nearly fell off my chair this evening when my regular check of your wondrous nostalgia site showed that my PSS Sea Vixen plan has now appeared, along with its original 1994 RCMW article. I am particulary happy to find this as my original notes are lost and I needed to know the correct cg position before attempting a larger one. I would advise anyone building this DO NOT attempt to fly with a rearward cg. [read the text !]
I have already submitted a comment to you about the aileron details on the plan. I am quite happy to answer any question that may arise from other builders.
The attached photos [main pic, 003-012] are all I can now find and were taken after many years of use, hence the dust and dents. The original model itself has survived some 30+ years of occasional use and was snapped up last year at one of our club swapmeets to make some space in my hangar.
Long live oz ! Best wishes,
Mike S - 26/10/2024
Only problem I had (at the time) Mike was cutting the cores. Hot wire travel at the root is faster than tip, resulting in melt away at the tip. Errrr sorry for the other Haileron dotted line, it's my mod on my copy of the plan. Shudagontospecsavers.
Circlip - 27/10/2024
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Scaling

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