Mr Mulligan (oz4766)

About this Plan

Mr Mulligan. Penut scale rubber model.

Quote: "Ben Howard's 'Mr Mulligan', by Hank Nixon.

The Howard DGA.6, 'Mister Mulligan,' is without a doubt, one of the best known and most popular airplanes of all time. It won both the Thompson and Bendix trophy races in 1935. In the 1936 Bendix, it went down near Crown Point, New Mexico, when it threw a prop blade. In winning the Bendix, it averaged 238 mph, a great speed for an airplane of it's type, even today.

Construction of the model is conventional, but the fuselage has some tricky spots, so this is where I'll be fairly specific. Begin by building two sides over the cross hatched area on the side view. When these are dry, separate them except at the tailpost. Next add the cross-pieces at the cabin.

Now comes the tricky part. You will notice that the rongerons and stringers curve sharply in front of the cabin. Mine were sliced From 1116 sheet in order to get the desired curve. Place the fuselage on the top view and add these two sliced pieces along the thrust line, then add former D. When you can remove it from the plan, add formers C through K and the remaining upper cross pieces. Now install the 1/16 sq. bottom stringer with the sliced front like the two as the thrust line. Check now to see that everything is straight. If it is, add the 1/64 wire land-ing gear. It's all downhill from here. Add the 1/32 sq. bottom stringers. I find it easier to notch my formers after they are in place but this is up to you. A thin, double edged razor blade (broken in hail') makes this job much less difficult. Add the rest of the nose stringers and the window framing and you are ready to go at the cowl.

First, cut out formers A and B. Cut three pieces of 1/16 sq., 7/16 long. Put former B on a flat part of your work board (I usually find such an area on the third Tuesday of each month, between 7:00 and 7:15 pm) and glue the 1/16 sq pieces standing on end. Glue former A to these so that it lines up when viewed from above. Wrap soft 1/16 sheet around these to form the cowl. After trimming this, add the 1/8 sheet ring to the front of former A and attach the whole thing so the fuselage framework.

Little needs to be said about the wing and tail surfaces. Pick light, straight wood for these and they will come out the way they should.

Sand the entire framework well and give it a coat of thinned dope. Cover everything with white tissue and very lightly water shrink. Give everything MO coats of shinned clear dope, plus one extra on the fuselage because this gets most of the handling. I use Sig Lite Cote dope thinned 50-50. This helps prevent warps.

Build up the wing struts, wheels, landing gear, and fairings out of very Fight wood. There aren't any real tricks to this, but take your time and do a nice job on these things because they make a big difference in how the whole job looks when it is done.

Assemble the ship, beginning by glu-ing first the stab in place and then the rudder. The wing is next. Be sure to check how things are lined up. Add the windshield of very light plastic. Finally, add the wheels, pants, Fairings, and wing struts.

I doped my struts and landing gear white, which made a nice accent. The wheels and inside the cowl are doped black. My prop is a plastic one from a Delta Dart, trimmed in size and painted grey.

The wing license number is NR273Y and should be one inch high. These are of yellow tissue outlined in black ball-point pen. This is done before they are cut out with your trusty razor blade. Try laying these out over grid paper that has five grids to the inch. This makes it downright easy. The racing number is 40 and is black tissue. Make these about 5/8 of an inch high. These go on the upper left and tower right wings, and both fuselage sides. The Gulf insignias are 7/16 dia orange circles outlined in black with GULF typed in capitals. These are on both sides of the nose and rudder. Many other details can be found by referring to the March/April 1972 issue of MODEL BUILDER.

Flying is easy with this little bird. The rudder has been increased in area to insure good directional stability. Balance 1/2 inch behind the LE. Bend the elevator up a little if it dives in the glide and down a little if it stalls. Bend the rudder to give a slight left turn. If you got the down thrust as shown on the plan and have a little right thrust it shouldn't need too much adjustment under power. If It stalls under power, add a little more down thrust. My airplane uses a loop of either 1/8 or 3/32 rubber, depending on how much pitch twist into the prop. With 1/8 Pirelli and lots of pitch, I get about thirty seconds on mine. Not bad for all of that detail.

My Mister Mulligan has been a lot of fun and is in good condition even after hundreds of flights. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine and I've sure you'll agree that it is a DGA (Darned Good Airplane)."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

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