Hughes H1 (oz16114)
About this Plan
Hughes H1. Radio control spoart scale model, for electric power. Wingspan 1400 mm.
Quote (google-translated): "Gabriele Gentile presents the drawing of a beautiful semi-reproduction (with a flight that is anything but critical) of one of the most legendary racers in history.
Who among us, aviation enthusiasts, has not seen the film "The Aviator", admiring the beautiful winged creatures of the eclectic, visionary and extravagant American billionaire Howard Hughes? I imagine you will have watched with interest the scene in which Hughes established the new world speed record for land aircraft in 1935, marking a speed of 352 mph, equal to 566 km/h.
The plane was called H-1, to be precise Hughes H-1 Racer, it was a true thoroughbred racer with a slender and elegant line, even studied in the wind tunnel to optimize its aerodynamic performance. It was a low-wing aircraft designed and built by Hughes Aircraft specifically to break the speed record held until then by the Italian Francesco Agello at the controls of the Macchi-Castoldi MC-72 seaplane. The project was very innovative for the time with real technological refinements such as the fuselage covered with a completely smooth working aluminum coating with rivets flush with the sheet metal, the retractable hydraulic landing gear and the cockpit in a forward position and totally closed. The wing had a very accentuated positive dihedral (7°) and a significant thickness. The aircraft was equipped with a 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior radial engine, capable of delivering up to 1000 HP.
In 1937, a different version of the plane, equipped with a wider wing, also set a new nonstop transcontinental speed record, departing Los Angeles and reaching New York in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds, beating the previous record by about two hours, with an hourly average of 322 mph (about 518 km/h).
The project and construction: When the time came to choose the new subject for the “Aerodimentoso Cimento 2014” contest in June 2013, I only had a few ideas: classic wooden construction, single-engine monoplane and internal combustion engine. I had not yet built any internal combustion model, preferring the simpler electric engine for my other models, but the time had come to design and build a truly complete model.
So, almost by chance, while surfing the Internet, I chose this subject. I immediately liked it with its sleek shape and mirrored livery.
However, none of the construction plans I found online satisfied me completely, so I decided to create a completely new project. So, starting from the best triptych available online, I began the design that I carried out with Autocad LT, therefore traditional two-dimensional. I preferred to create the long-wing version of the Hughes, the one of the transcontinental speed record to be clear, in order to have more wing surface and therefore a lower load and a lower minimum speed of support. The space I have available in my small laboratory does not allow me to undertake constructions with a wingspan greater than 1400 mm, a size that is still honest for creating a construction with the features I wanted. First of all I checked the fundamental measurements that the triptych presented such as the wing surface, the volumetric ratio of the tail, the values of the surfaces of the horizontal and vertical tail planes and the ailerons.
The calculations convinced me to make some changes to the geometry of the model compared to the original aircraft, in order to improve its stability and controllability. I therefore lengthened the rear lever arm, increased the stabilizer-elevator surface by about 20% and that of the directional fin by 15%. The ailerons were also slightly enlarged. These slight changes did not, however, affect the beautiful shapes of the original aircraft.
This is a fairly traditional design, with the fuselage composed of the front firewall, two side panels and a series of frames joined longitudinally by four spars and balsa stringers. The frames and spars are made of 2 mm birch plywood, except for the three most important frames (6 mm firewall and 3 mm wing attachment). The sides are made of 3 mm poplar plywood and are joined by a central tray, also made of 3 mm poplar, which serves as a support for the servos, the battery and various electronics. The fuel tank is 400 cc and fits in front just behind the firewall.
The wing is fixed to the fuselage with the classic system of two pins that are inserted at the front into two holes on the second frame and at the rear with two screws that block the wing to a small base anchored between the sixth frame and the two sides.
The entire structure was designed with a series of joints that allow for precise assembly and give greater mechanical resistance to the fuselage. I paid a lot of attention to containing the general weight of the structure both by working on the design and on the choice of materials, it was also essential to have a tail as light as possible since the wing is very advanced.
The maximum weight that I had planned in the project was 2.7 kg. This allowed me to choose the engine and since I wanted the model to have a reproduction noise, it could only be a 10 cc four-stroke glow engine. I made the fin, rudder, stabilizer and elevator groups as separate subassemblies to be glued with epoxy to the fuselage when the construction was almost complete; exactly as is done on many ARF models. The stabilizer is cambered, as is the fin, and has a symmetrical biconvex profile at 0° of incidence with respect to the wing, which also has zero incidence..."
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(oz16114)
Hughes H1
by Gabriele Gentile
from Modellismo
March 2014
55in span
Scale IC R/C LowWing
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 17/05/2025
Filesize: 360KB
Format: • PDFvector
Credit*: Cesare
Downloads: 438
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User comments
What a wonderful plan for an iconic racer!Madhukar - 28/06/2025
Hi Gabriele,
Super design and plan.
As time goes by and I forget too much, did we had contact that days? I started in 2002/2003 wit my Hughes H1 Racer, flew a prototype but never managed to bring up the gear as it was a super intensive construction. The prototype flew with Zenoah ZG62 and schedule was Moki 150ccm
Part1
https://www.rc-network.de/threads/hughes-h1-racer-nachbau-des-replika.13829/
Part2
https://www.rc-network.de/threads/hughes-h1-racer-teil-2.13905/
As I needed someone for the gears and couldn’t find assistance, people that said they will help in the beginning were gone as usual, my goal changed to a plane I can build completely myself an the QED, see outerzone,
https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=14695
was build for the Moki. All moulds and stuff was sold to airfly.de but up to now there is no kit available.
It is fully moulded, the wingmoulds were nevere used up to now.
I can remember that a modeller contacted me that time due he was building slightly smaller H1, may be it was you Gabriele?!
The H1 is a wounderfull shape and you managed a super finish that looks like the original aluminum.
Hope a lot of H1 Fans will build it had have fun!
Cheers Matthias
Matzito - 29/06/2025
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- Hughes H1 (oz16114)
- Plan File Filesize: 360KB Filename: Hughes_H1_oz16114.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 1057KB Filename: Hughes_H1_oz16114_article.pdf
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Notes
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Scaling
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