Toucan (oz2855)

About this Plan

Toucan. A 47in span Wakefield rubber model. Competition winning design. Model Aircraft, April 1954.

Quote: "1953 Gutteridge Trophy Winner. A 'new-rule' Wakefield. Toucan, designed and described by John Palmer.

On introduction of the new Wakefield rules it was considered by Croydon members that a ballasted model would generally out-perform a model with oil the extra weight built into the airframe, due largely to the smaller moments of inertia involved, making a more compact and docile machine. This has been borne out in practice by other models as well as those built by the writer.

Other club members have influenced the detail design. The prop. has a blade working on the 'Joe Bilgri principle' - fanning out and increasing pitch to kill the first burst of power, but the folding forward weight had been used for some time previously by Jim Tangney and Norman Marcus. The undercart was dreamed up by Jack North after spending some time repairing the bottom longeron of a 'diamond' - the result of D/T landings on rough ground. Various lengths of fuselage from 5 ft 3 in downwards have been used with centre of gravity position from 40 percent to 100 percent of wing chord, but the present set-up gives best results with the small tailplane employed.

Construction. Although the wing construction is more than usually complicated the extra work will produce a structure very resistant to warps. Make the ribs by the sandwich method and thread on to the spars before adding the leading and trailing edges, sub spar and sheeting. Cover with Jap tissue if available or lightweight Modelspan. Use three coats of a dope mixture with 25 percent banana oil added..."

Supplementary file notes

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