Lightning Bug (oz16539)

About this Plan

Lightning Bug. Radio control sport model for electric power. Wingspan 27 in.

Quote: "Lightning Bug. Tom Binkley has adapted this simple 27 in span design by Bill Winter and brought it into the electric age with brushless power, guided by 2.4 GHz radio.

Bill Winter was a well-known model designer and publisher whose work appeared in popular model magazines from the 1930s through 1960s. His Lightning Bug (oz2168) was published in the July 1961 issue of Model Airplane News. It was powered by the amazing Cox .010 engine and was guided by rudder control via an escapement.

The Lightning Bug presented here is a compact park flyer that is simple, rugged and quick to build. It is powered by the popular 1811 2000 kV outrunner motor, which is the perfect weight, size and power when combined with a 300 mAh 2S LiPo battery and GWS 5043 (125 mm x 110 mm) prop. A small 6 Amp brushless ESC, tiny receiver and two 5 g servos provide rudder, elevator and throttle control.

Easy to Build: Start construction with the wing. Using a steel straight edge and sharp scalpel knife, cut the leading and trailing edges out of 1/16 balsa sheet. Buy or cut 1/8 square balsa for the spars and 1/4 in square balsa for the leading edge. Cut leading and trailing edges and spars to length.

Photocopy the wing rib, glue the copy to a cardboard cereal box and cut out a slightly oversize rib template. Then cut 18 ribs out of 1/16" balsa sheet. Stack them together as evenly as possible and pin the stack from both sides. Using a sanding stick or rigid sanding block, sand them to the shape of the rib on the plan. Keep everything square and even. This is the sandwich method.

Then mark the spar locations and using a razor saw or file, cut a notch in the top and bottom of the rib stack to fit your 1/8 square balsa spars, keeping upper and lower spars parallel.

To cut the ribs for the 1/16 x 1/2 in leading edge and 1/16 x 3/4 in trailing edges, saw only the vertical kerfs, then unpin ribs and make the horizontal cuts with a scalpel knife to each rib, or stacks of three or four ribs at a time. It only takes a few minutes to make a set of ribs..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "Steve, I sent my plans and article material to QEFI magazine in England. They published my version of Bill Winter's Lightning Bug in their Sept 2014 issue including 'Free full size plans'. Their plans, not my plans. I've never removed the plans included in the issue they sent me. Their plans were plain, uninspiring CADish plans.

I just emailed you my plans and scans of the article including pictures my wife took. It was a neat, compact model that flew really well. It was a quick, easy build.

The caption says..."brought into the electric age with brushless power guided by 2.4 GHz radio" below the picture of me hand launching the model while holding my old 72 MHz transmitter with it's long, not 2.4 antenna! I was amused at the oversight and very pleased that my model got published for others to enjoy. Thanks for all you two do for us old modellers! Tom Binkley"

Supplementary file notes

Article.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction