Footprint (oz5259)

About this Plan

Footprint. Control line team race model.

Quote: "By special request! Winner of the 1954 international team race at the World Championships with a speed of 82 mph over 40 laps on 10 cc of fuel. Footprint, designed by Peter Smith.

WHEN THE BRITISH TEAM destined for Holland and the World Ca, Championships last August, learned that one of the events was to be a team-race, it was decided that as most of us had considerable team racing experience we should stand a very good chance if only we had some suitable models. A quick glance at the FAI T/R rules showed me that a completely new model was called for as the FAI area of 8 sq dm total is considerably larger than our own 70 sq in for wing area alone.

The model had its first test flight the day before tee team was due to depart and exceeded all expectations. Its subsequent performance in the Wcrld Championships also left nothing to be desired.

Footprint was easily the fastest model in its heat and even though a prop change had to be made, it went on to win with a time of 7 min 10 sec for 10 km. Incidentally this 'slow' (for Footprint) time was bettered only once by another model during the whole meeting.

Following the heat win it went on to win the semi-final (by over 2 min.) in the fastest time of the day of 5 min 46 sec, and the final in 6 min 7.3 sec. All races were run over 10 km (120 laps), the Footprint averaging approx 40 laps at 82 mph on a 10 cc tank.

Cut the fuselage sides from good quality Obechi. Cut out formers. Bend undercarriage from 12 swg piano wire and fix to F.1. Slot aides to take F.1. Durofix securely together, allow to dry and draw rear of fuselage together and cement. Cement on bottom and nieleblodts. Lightly cement top of fuselage to bottom half and carve to shape. Split the two halves with a razor blade.

The wing and tail are cut and sanded from sheet balsa and need little convnent. Insert 1/8 ply support on upper surface of wing, first adding bell-crank pivot bolt. Cement wing and tailplane to upper half of fuselage and connect up controls. Engine platform is cut from 10 or 12 g dural. Drill holes for engine bolts and mounting screws. It is advisable to reinforce the screw hole at the rear of fuselage with plastic wood unless very hard bales has been used for fuselage top.

Gouge out the inside of the engine bay to give plenty of room for the escape of exhaust gas and for fuel tubing. Add wing tip weight, line guide, tailskid, etc. For extra strength tissue cover before doping and fuel proofing.

Although first flown specifically as an FAI racer with 10 cc tank it has also flown with some merit and at no disadvantage against smaller SMAE class A racers, using a larger 15 cc tank. Dimensions for both tanks are shown on the plan, and thanks to the method of split fuselage construction, the tanks can be inter-changeable.

The completed model should weigh about 17 or 18 oz. and will prove to be quite rugged enough to take all the hard knocks that are encountered whilst team racing. "

Footprint by P. Smith. Control line team racer from Aeromodeller June 1955.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Planfile includes article.

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