Comper Swift (oz3101)

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Comper Swift (oz3101) by Ron Warring 1957 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Comper Swift. Free flight scale rubber power, model racer.

Quote: "Full size plans for a simple rubber model of this famous King's Cup air race machine. Comper Swift, by Ron Warring.

THE first Comper Swift appeared in 1929, built by the short-lived Comper Aircraft Company of Hooton, Cheshire, and the design was a popular favourite for racing in the early 1930s. Although only 37 Swifts were actually built, it appeared in two forms - one with a 90 hp Pobjoy Niagara radial engine, and the other with the 120 hp in-line Gipsy III. Two of the former type survive to this day in this country, whilst a Gipsy engined Swift is still believed to be airworthy in Australia.

When it appeared, the Comper Swift was claimed to be the smallest light aircraft in the world, and also the fastest. Its price, with Pobjoy engine, was £550. Enthusiastic owners bought it chiefly for racing, where it was invariably handicapped near the 'scratch' mark. Our model is based on the Gipsy-Swift owned by the then Prince of Wales, which placed second in the 1932 King's Cup Air Race at an average speed of 155.75 mph. There were, as a matter of interest, eight Camper Swifts in this race out of a field of 42.

For best performance, choose the lightest sheet available for the model. The fuselage sides are cut from 1/16 in sheet of normal straight-grain variety. The fin and tailplane should be cut from really light quarter grain 1/16 in. The decking and bottom of the fuselage are covered with 1/32 in sheet and since this has to be bent into a curve, the selected sheet for this should not be quarter grain.

Make a careful tracing of the exact shape of the fuselage sides from the plan and cut two identical pieces from 1/16 in sheet. Similarly transfer the former drawings to 1/16 in sheet and cut out. Mark the positions of the formers on the sheet sides and begin assembly with formers 3 and 4..."

Update 2/7/2022: Replaced this plan with a clearer version. This is just a minor cleanup, fixed the alingment between the two pages, removed staple marks.

Supplementary file notes

Article.
Previous scan version.

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Comper Swift (oz3101) by Ron Warring 1957 - model pic

Datafile:

ScaleType:
  • Comper_Swift | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)

    ScaleType: This (oz3101) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.

    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comper_Swift
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

Comper Swift (oz3101) by Ron Warring 1957 - pic 001.jpg
001.jpg

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User comments

Have checked the wingspan and re-listed this one now at 18 in, thanks to MarkB.
SteveWMD - 02/07/2022
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Download File(s):
  • Comper Swift (oz3101)
  • Plan File Filesize: 130KB Filename: Comper_Swift_oz3101_.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 353KB Filename: Comper_Swift_oz3101_article.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 447KB Filename: Comper_Swift_oz3101_previous.pdf
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Notes

* Credit field

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Scaling

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