Flying Aces Sportster (oz5000)

About this Plan

Flying Aces Sportster. Radio control sport model.

The original 14 inch free flight Flying Aces Sportster (oz8230) design was first published in Flying Aces, March 1935. This here is a later, enlarged version for radio control.

Update 10/2/2026: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "Free Pro Plan. Flying Aces Sportster. Geoff Northmore serves up a classic thirties beauty, perfect for four-strokes.

I discovered this H Loschin design lurking as a very small reduced plan amidst the 'Flying Aces' pages of the March 1935 issue of Aero Modeller. The plan shows a small rubber powered model and gives no dimensions apart from 1/4 inch dihedral! A photograph of a hand holding the model indicated a wing span of around 15 in. This was enough to whet my appetite so I designed a scaled up version for .049 power using 3 channel micro radio.

This flies well despite the lack of dihedral so I thought a larger version suitable for an OS 26 FS would be even better. The scale factor was decided by the minimum fuselage width I could reasonably fit the engine in! Any inaccuracy in outline or dimension the eagle eyed may detect is due to my scaling up by hand from the small original plan.

I also decided to go for 4 channels, a new departure for me as I've always stuck with 3 in the past - this produced some interesting takeoffs at first as I tried to steer with the ailerons! It's just a thought but I think the model would be easily flyable without ailerons using the existing dihedral - the small version certainly copes well. Anyway enough of my rambling, the following notes may help in the building of this traditionally constructed model.

Fuselage: Commence by cutting out all the ply parts and decide how you are going to mount the engine, if you use a commercial mount your choice could be limited by the fuselage width - blame the original designer! I suggest you still use hardwood or ply to strengthen the engine to u/c bulkhead join - that engine is hanging quite a long way out supported only by balsa.

If you use my method and an O.S. 26 FS you need to make a groove along the 1/4 in sheet sides to accommodate the recommended engine bearers. These grooves are only 1/16 or so deep and are easily made with a 1/2 in chisel. a length of sandpaper over a bit of engine bearer will also do the trick. (I found when my model first flew that it required some right side thrust - a commercial mount would make adding side thrust an easy option..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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