Spearhead Junior (oz220)

About this Plan

Spearhead Junior. High-wing cabin free flight model.

Update 24/03/2020: Added kit review (of Klarich Custom kit) from RCM November 1999, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "RCM Product Review: Spearhead Jr, from Klarich Custom Kits. By Stu Richmond.

The Zipper (oz16000), the Buzzard Bombshell (oz5360), the Miss America (oz5645), the Playboy (oz7835) - these are some of the names of the world's most famous model airplanes that were popular contest winners about 50 years ago. My personal all-time favorite was Jerry Stoloff's Spearhead Jr, that I built about 1943 or 1944 and powered with an Ohlsson .23. It was a wonderful flier and I've had happy memories for many years of that model. In those days, there was no radio control; we launched them and then chased them downwind on foot. My Spearhead Jr was eventually lost on a long thermaling out-of-sight flight.

Nowadays, we have radio control and tiny miniature equipment that's superbly reliable. Additionally, we now have Harry Klarich who runs a custom kitting service for these great old-time models, and $2.00 sent to him at Klarich Custom Kits gets you his catalog. If you have a favorite old-timer, it's pretty certain that you can buy what's called a 'short kit' from Klarich. These short kits contain the landing gear, all curved pieces of balsa and plywood, and a reproduction of the original full-size plans.

With the plans in your possession, you then go to your own local hobby shop and buy the strip wood and other stuff that's needed to finish the model. This keeps the costs down considerably because the shipping box is small (the Spearhead Jr short kit arrived in a strong corrugated box measuring only 2 x 10-1/2 x 14 inches via priority mail) and it contains all the tedious-to-make parts. The hard work is already done for you and the pricing is very reasonable. Please understand, these kits are custom-cut and there's a delay between order time and shipping. so plan ahead!

Construction: The Spearhead's plans measure 36 x 48 in and the fuselage starts with building a flat crutch directly over the plans. Then, you add upper and lower formers above and below the crutch to complete the fuselage. The curved parts are all machine cut, no die crunching, and the parts fit extremely well with only a bit of sanding required. As an example, the wing ribs are slightly over-length and will need minor trimming at the trailing edge for a perfect fit.

These old-time models are very lightly constructed; their piece count is usually low and they usually build very quickly. The vertical fin, rudder, horizontal stabilizer, and elevator are built directly over the plan and it's up to you to determine where you'll build in the hinged separation points for the rudder and elevators. These points are not super critical. As a rule of thumb, the rudder should be about 30% to 40% of the total fin/rudder area and the elevators should total between 15% and 20% of the total horizontal stabilizerlelevator.

One of the photos shows a close-up of the Spearhead's tail, and as you can see, my rudder hinge line is 3 in from the rudder's rear-most point. There's sufficient separation (2-1/2") between the elevators so that the control surfaces can't touch each other.

The wing begins by building its main spar directly over the plans. With the finished spar held in your hands, the wing ribs are added and that structure is then laid over the lan ans the leading and trailing edges are added..."

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