Lil Misery (oz433)

About this Plan

Lil Misery. A tailless old-time gas model. Pusher design for Atom 09 power.

Originally published in July 1942 Air Trails, this here is a later redrawn plan, from MB Jan 1989.

Quote: "Jim Robinson's Li'l Misery, this month's Old Timer. Design by Dick Cohen & John Worth. Text by Bill Northrop. Plan by Phil Bernhardt.

We just met this Old Timer of the Month, in person, only a few weeks ago. It was at the 22nd annual Northrop Flying Wing contest at Taft, California, Sunday, October 3rd. Actually, we met two of them. One was built by Dick Lyons, of Camarillo, and the other by Jim Robinson, of Pasa Robles. Both modelers were there to kill two birds, as the SCIFS Annual was on the same week-end, both Saturday and Sunday, so it was only natural to enter the flying wing power event with Old Timer wings!

The model, Li'l Misery, was published in the July 1942 issue of Air Trails and was credited to co-authors Dick Cohen and John Worth - yes, it's the same John Worth. The 50-inch span model was designed for the Atom engine, and a Cox Baby Bee has just the right conservative power to fly the model. Both Dick and Jim recommend about one notch above cruise setting on the needle; Jim uses a 6 x 3 prop, and Dick uses an 8 x 4, no side thrust, and just a little bit of down. The flaps are set at about 30 degrees up. Dick used 1/32 ply for the notched trim holders, while Jim held the tabs in place with pins through the rudders. Turns are made by bending only the tab on the rudder that is to be on the inside of the turn. The principle is similar to that used on the full-size Northrop wings; it's drag that produces the turn. It might even be possible that the trim tab on the inside rudder could be bent in either direction, just so it provides the drag needed to hold that wing back, pulling the aircraft in the desired direction! That's not gospel, but try it and see.

In producing the full-size drawing, Phil Bernhardt noted that the magazine drawing had some inaccuracies. For instance, the fuselage pod was drawn minus the strip planking, yet the nose block was shown flush with the first bulkhead. And the 1/16 sheet around the cockpit is shown as set in between the bulkheads. No allowance was made for the 1/8-inch planking! Oh well, Phil has taken care of that, along with a few other things."

Update 03/01/2016: Replaced this plan with a correctly scaled version at full size, thanks to RobGhislain.

Update 26/4/2023: Replaced this plan with a clearer copy, thanks to MB2020.

Update 3/6/2023: Added original article, from Air Trails 1942, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article (AT1949).
Article (MB 1989).
Previous scan version.

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