Mystery Man (oz5201)
About this Plan
Mystery Man. Free flight gas model.
The Mystery Man (oz4606) was first published in Air Trails June 1939. This here is a later redrawn version of the plan, by Phil Bernhardt, from MB 1975.
Quote: "OLD TIMER Model of the Month. Designed by Elbert J Weathers. Redrawn by Phil Bernhardt. Text by Bill Northrop.
If you can't beat em, throw the book at em! Of Californian Elbert J Weathers' many famous gas models, the Mystery Man will undoubtedly go down in history as the most remembered. A beautiful and well thought-out design, it had two outstanding features that immediately identified it.
First, there was the graceful gull wing with curved up tips. The gull center section was built as part of the fuselage, and the outer panels plugged in with tubes and dowels, much like our modern R/C sailplanes.
The most outstanding feature was the takeoff dolly. To eliminate drag, and yet permit unassisted takeoffs, Weathers designed a dolly from which the plane lifted as it gained flying speed. At first, it was considered quite a novel and interesting feature, but it soon became a problem. Elbert was placing in too many contests! Before long, the 'If you can't beat em' motto was applied, and the ship was declared illegal - unless the heavy takeoff dolly was locked in place. The contention was that the Mystery Man was 'Dropping parts in flight', which of course, has always been illegal in competition flying.
In our estimation, the Mystery Man takeoff dolly is no less legal than the dolly now used by control line speed ships, and it should be declared Not Guilty and given a full pardon! However, in case you should run up against some narrow-minded CD who thinks lifting off of a dolly is the same as dropping parts, you better keep a set of locking pins in your field box... or hand launch!"
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Supplementary file notes
Planfile includes article.
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(oz5201)
Mystery Man
by Elbert J Weathers
from Model Builder
February 1975
78in span
IC F/F Cabin
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 30/12/2013
Filesize: 1363KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: theshadow
Downloads: 1105
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- Mystery Man (oz5201)
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Notes
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Scaling
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