Pushaire (oz2596)

About this Plan

Pushaire. Twin boom pusher free flight power model. This plan also featured in Flying Models Decade of Designs (1), published 1960.

Quote: "One evening while looking through the pile of Free-flight models we had accumulated through the years, we became alarmingly aware that we had become stagnant in this particular category. That same evening, with such a thought preying upon us, we shoved everything else aside and went to work at the drawing board to see what we could do to put ourselves at ease.

After producing several rough sketches and figuring approximate proportions, we began to push our pencil around with an enthusiasm rarely evidenced. Before the evening was over the 'Pushaire' was ready to be transformed from a two-dimensional plan to a three-dimensional structural reality.

Taking advantage of our enthusiasm, we dug right into the construction of the prototype. Before the week came to a close the model was ready for its maiden flight.

Here was a thing of beauty, we thought to ourselves as we prepared it for the first test-flight - not conventional, not gaudy and not in the least bit radical. Perhaps the performance would not set the world afire, but it would be just nice to watch the ship's graceful lines as it zoomed skyward under power and then wheeled gracefully down in a floating glide.

It was a biting cold day that first time out, but fortunately the engine gave us no trouble and fired up quickly. We leaned the engine out a little, just enough so that we could see how the Pushaire behaved going upstairs. The model's graceful lines belied its climbing characteristics. It zoomed forward full of fury - combating the elements with its nose pointed up in a shallow turn. As the engine cut, the ship dipped gently and began to descend with a little tighter turn in the glide.

Minor adjustments were made on successive flights and soon we realized that the model had something more than just good looks. It could hold it's own with the very best sport flyers. We were very pleased with the way things turned out in general..."

Update 16/12/2016: added article that accompanied the plan when first published (Flying Models, May 1957), thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article.
Additional version of the same plan, but with full-size parts, thanks to hogal.

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