Rockwell XFV12A (oz16077)

About this Plan

Rockwell XFV12A. Free flight scale model for rubber power. Wingspan 27 in.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "Steve and Mary, I'm really enjoying your site. Can't wait to check out the new posts each day. Keep up the great work!

Enclosed find my latest plan as requested by Roger B. He requested this after you posted my Spitfire HF Mk VIII (oz16039). This is a unique canard aircraft that unfortunately didn't ever achieve what she was designed to do. She was to be a VSTOL aircraft that to my research stated, "the pilot was never able to achieve a controlled hover. I believe that it was in competition with the Convair 200 and the British Harrier. Of these three you're familiar with the one name that accomplished it's designed task except for it being subsonic of which the XFV12a was supposed to be supersonic.

This plan is designed to be built using familiar methods of construction.

WING: The main wing is constructed using the Dave Rees' sliced rib construction. In my previous plans I mentioned that Mike Stuart's site has a great tutorial on this technique. Mike Stuart's Free Flight Models.

FUSELAGE: This is built using the Ladder Jig there are several tutorials available. Check out stickandtissue.com under Building Model Airplanes/techniques for building fuselages, Maxfliart's latest videos on Building the Beech Stagerwing Twin prototype in the #1 in the series on Youtube.

EMPENNAGE: In this case a canard using two flying surfaces on each side just behind the cockpit. I suggest using 3/32" sheet sanded to an airfoil shape. There is a cap of 1/32" plywood to aid in strength on nose heavy landings. My experience with canards is to keep the main wing at zero incidence and 2 or more positive degrees of incidence to begin with. My thoughts on adjusting the canards is to glue a short piece of wire sticking out from the L.E. at the root. A bit of scotch tape to hold the setting on the wire to the side of the fuselage. Hope this makes sense.

Now a word of caution. My experience of Free Flight models with anhedral have not been that successful. My understanding in full size aircraft, anhedral is to aid the aircraft in roll and maneuvering not for stability . I remember seeing a model video of an anhedral setup on a model that flew for a bit then rolled over and to the suprise of many continued to fly inverted, the anhedral became dihedral! So this model is full of challenges in trimming to fly, 1. a Canard 2. Anhedral, 3. tricky CG . I've used a CG calculator on the internet to determine the CG on the plan, but this is a general suggestion to be finalized in trimming.

I hope this work for Roger B. and I look forward to what he's able to do with this one. I does have a nice Blue and white paint scheme.
Regards,
Tom Akery/Sky9pilot"

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