Inspirer (oz3732)

About this Plan

Inspirer. Free flight power cabin model.

Francis Tlush's Inspirer, the old timer of the month, from Model Builder magazine issue 10-78.

Quote: "Mention the name 'Francis Tlush' to any Old-Timer enthusiast, and nine times out of ten you will get a reply like, 'Oh, yeah, he made some great little motors...' and on and on. Fact is, Tlush designed some great little airplanes, too. One of his models was the 'Inspirer', which appeared in the October and November 1937 issues of Air Trails.

Aside from being one of the 'unknown' Old-Timer designs, the model is interesting in that it uses some unusual for 1937, at least) construction techniques. For example, it was one of the first cabin models to use the crutch method for building the fuselage, resulting in a nicely-contoured structure, instead of a slab-sided box. Also, take a look at the wing and tail construction - not many designs of this period use balsa sheeting, capstrips, and false ribs to the extent that the Inspirer does. Performance-wise, the Inspirer is probably on a par with the Trenton Terror or Flying Quaker - stable and reliable, but not a trophy magnet. However, as with most Old-Timer designs, you'll never be sure until you build one. These things can fool ya!

The Inspirer is a natural for R/C, and would probably rank with the best of the 3-channel trainers. If you go this route, we would recommend using spruce for the wing spars, so that you can at least loop the model without worrying about folding the wing. Also, the dihedral should be reduced from the present 8-1/4 inches to about 4-1/2 inches, to eliminate any dutch-rolling tendency.

By the way, the text does mention that the balance point should be at about 1/3 of the wing chord back from the leading edge - rule of thumb that seldom misses on this type of design.

Also not shown on the drawing, but to be included with the full size plans - a wire tailskid is mounted at station 14."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Planfile includes article.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction