334-G (oz3540)

About this Plan

334 G. Control line stunt model. Wingspan 42 in.

Quote: "334G, by Pete Russell. THIS GOLD TROPHY winner must hold the record for long development, being the same size and shape as the first in the line, '280', built in 1946! Apart from 1950-1, when Pete Russell used the Mercury 'Monitor' and a couple of years with an upright-engined version of '334', all his models have looked like this.

The design aims at long life, good appearance, ability to fly anywhere, manoeuvrability. At first the latter quality was the one that suffered, but careful development, especially on wing section, areas, tail areas and control gearing, has led to a model with adequate manoeuvrability for top contests, above average looks, and one that will last indefinitely.

Less anyone should criticise the fitting of a Chipmunk type u/c to a World War II type of design, it was considered that this looked less incongruous than a fighter doing aerobatics with its undercart down. For non-contest flying, or if your choice of ground is limited, leave off the undercart, then you can fly anywhere.

Start by bolting the engine to the bearers with the spacers in position. These latter ensure an accurate tank line up with the ED 246. Then fit the ply front formers and the side doublers. Make a good job of this. Box in the tank compartment, then add the 3/32 sheet sides, and the top spine.

Build the wing and when complete except for controls, add to the part built fuselage using templates to ensure accurate line up. Then fit the tailplane and elevator unit, and fit control system. Next add several rectangular formers to support the fuselage sides, and act as guides for the push rod. Being 16 swg it will bend if not well supported.

Now complete the fuselage top by adding shaped laminations. When shaped externally it is cut off and hollowed out before final fitting.

Fit the fuselage bottom, not forgetting to fit the hook to take the hood retaining rubber band. This holds the hood firmly down, but small registers are incorporated in the fuselage top to hold the hood in the extreme open or closed positions. A small sealing strip of celluloid is fitted around the inside of the windscreen to prevent oils seeping in.

The cowling front is first stuck to the fuselage so that the aluminium cowling can be wrapped round. The two parts are held together by cement and short pins, with a fillet of mixed plastic wood and cement inside. Make this good and solid if you are not fitting an undercart. When this is complete, part off the cowl from the fuselage top. These short notes should cover the only out-of-the-rut points of this otherwise orthodox model.

The model should be covered all over with light-weight Modelspan after careful sanding. The finish consists of two coats of clear dope all over, followed by three coats of sanding sealer on the good parts. When the finish is right, a final single coat of silver is sprayed on. This consists of a mixture of white and silver to avoid the characteristic flakey nature of silver dope.

If you have flown aerobatic models before, you will have no difficulty with '334'. It is just longitudinally stable but fairly sensitive. If accurately built, line tension on 60 ft x .010 in stainless steel cable line will be good, as the speed is 65 mph. Note that no offsets are used. In practice '334' can be flown in any wind in which you can stand up, as was demonstrated at the Huddersfield Club's 1955 spring rally when the earlier '334E' won the stunt event, with the complete pattern, in a wind gusting up to 30 knots."

Update 4/12/2023: Added further article, from Aeromodeller Annual 1958/9, thanks to Jean-Marie Piednoir. Note this is 6 pages long and covers development of the 334 series in some detail.

Supplementary file notes

Article.
Article (Aeromodeller Annual).

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