Floater (oz15923)

 

Floater (oz15923) by Don McGovern 1960 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Floater. Free flight model for Jetex 50 power.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note no article was published with this plan.

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No model pic found for this plan

Datafile:
  • (oz15923)
    Floater
    by Don McGovern
    from Flying Models
    February 1960 
    19in span
    Jetex F/F
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
  • Submitted: 21/02/2025
    Filesize: 194KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: Pilgrim
    Downloads: 246

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User comments

No photo and no article, here's why. Magazines of the day sometimes needed a "filler" page about deadline time. That's what this is. Nobody wants to commit the sin of a blank sheet. While it's a nice looking model, I don't think it was ever built, at least before publishing. Any competent builder could build it from the plan and get it to fly. Fin and rudder looks big, but you can always cut it down if it tends to spiral in. Jetex will need a better attachment method. My Jetex came with little screws, which had to be in something harder than balsa. I built one Jetex, about 1960, an F-102, flew well, but the humid weather in LA (Lower Alabama) worked its wonders on the fuel pellets. I think they were gunpowder and sawdust, or something like that, soaked up moisture like a wet sponge, then wouldn't light. Fun while it lasted.
Doug Smith - 25/03/2025
By about 1960, 'real' Jetex pellets (made by ICI, principal component guanidine nitrate, which was horribly expensive) were no longer available, and that was when I consigned Jetex to history. A great pity.
John Park - 26/03/2025
There is a short article on guanidine nitrate in Wikipedia. Given the historic origin of the name - marine birds - I thought it would be inexpensive enough, but the natural resource has been over-exploited. Interesting uses, though, the airbag industry must keep the demand high, and jetex pellets suffer.
Miguel - 26/03/2025
More on Jetex fuels here: https://web.archive.org/web/2007100211...
Jan Novick - 26/03/2025
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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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