Link 24 (oz15797)

 

Link 24 (oz15797) by EW Evans 1945 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Link 24. Rubber cabin duration model. Wingspan 24 in.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "The Link 24ins. This is a Ted Evans design dating from around 1945 which he kitted from his shop in Northampton and sold at 6s/6d (about £20 in today’s money). It first came to my notice in Mike Kemp’s masterly biography on Ted Evans in SAM 35’s Yearbook 4.

The design is quite stylish with a high aspect ratio wing and cruciform tail. Ted tended to over-complicate things a bit and his Wakes were known for it. In the case of the little Link, he tried hard to make it simple to build and hit on a super simple way of building the wing…or so he thought. You make up a sort of ladder on the plan from 1/16, next you lay on the spars and lastly overlay the top part of the split ribs. The only problem is that very high precision is needed when cutting the top part of the ribs.

Ted couldn’t help further exhibiting his ingenuity by having the stab and fin slide into slots and interlock when in position. Again, high precision is needed to make it work but you see, it saved a whole rubber band!

In its heyday the Link attained local notoriety in the hands of M W Wilkinson who managed a 35 minute flight with it and recalled:

'The Link was a small rubber-powered model with a phenomenal performance out of all proportion to its modest size. The structure was entirely original, the fuselage being fabricated from 1/16sq. balsa. The wings were constructed with 1/16sq. bottom members, to the ribs, and 1/16in. sheetwood top profiles. Two main spars ran through the centre of the ribs, and the cruciform tail unit locked together through slots in the rear fuselage. The undercarriage was held in place by a rubber band and was fully sprung. The wings were tapered, and Ted informed us that he had also constructed a pair of parallel-chord wings to enable him to carry out a series of comparative tests.'

Ted knew of the problems taper would bring and sought to compensate by instructing the builder to incorporate 2 degrees washout on each wing. Oh dear, yet another difficulty for the target tyro. Nevertheless, in years gone by my correspondents assured me that the "small amount of additional work" involved in building the wing would be worthwhile. In 2002 Dave Dent wrote:

'It will approach 2 minutes in neutral conditions. I flew it in the CLEMAC postal competition in October and all four flights were around 2 minutes. The last flight was 117 seconds and it was nearly dusk. Why don’t you build one?'

As a result I did.

Weights were: Wing 8.0, Fuselage 18.0, Tail 2.5, Prop 8.5, Total 37.0g. CG 50%

Out early on very dewy grass, first flights at Pinkneys Green showed an inclination to stall gently on the glide. I added 1.5g of lead to the nose and tried again. It still looked slightly stally, but then (stupid boy!) I remembered that I had made provision to move the wing back 1/4in. Having taken advantage of this adjustment it started gliding quite well. Pushing up turns on the 6st of 1/8 10g motor it stalled on the climb. Tried downthrust without avail, tried .5mm of extra right thrust and away it went. By now it was wet through but still performing pretty well.

On the next outing to the more spacious Port Meadow it showed no need for further adjustment. In the misty, windless November conditions at 8 degrees C. we were able to work up to 850 turns and it was thrilling to see it climb into the mist and disappear before its ghostly form became gradually visible descending to land right amongst our little band.

At launch I had started my Casio wristwatch/stopwatch and was shocked to then look down and find it displaying 1.55. When you think that in warmer weather the rubber would be punching 10% harder, the 2 minutes claimed by Dave Dent a couple of decades ago is well verified. What a little darling!

Andrew Longhurst SAM 35"

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Link 24 (oz15797) by EW Evans 1945 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz15797)
    Link 24
    by EW Evans
    1945 
    24in span
    Rubber F/F Kit
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
  • Submitted: 12/01/2025
    Filesize: 625KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: AndrewLonghurst
    Downloads: 293

Link 24 (oz15797) by EW Evans 1945 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg
Link 24 (oz15797) by EW Evans 1945 - pic 004.jpg
004.jpg

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User comments

There is a tiny bit of text that got chopped off the RH edge of this scan. Now that I've put this up on the site, I see I forgot to fix it all. I fixed and added the word "sheet" two times to the "1.5mm" on the tail parts, but there are two more missing sections. Am I right in guessing the top one should say: "rudder hinge with soft wire" and the bottom one should say: "1.5 x 1.5 mm strips under ribs R1-R8"? Any help much appreciated.
SteveWMD - 21/01/2025
Actually, then there's also the final "Au" at the bottom. Maybe August?
SteveWMD - 21/01/2025
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Scaling

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