Medusa (oz6134)

About this Plan

Medusa. Free flight model for compreeed air power.

Quote: "When I learned there was a compressed air engine for models manufactured in Italy, and available in England, I wrote Ken Hinton, my good friend from across the pond in Bury St Edmonds, England, and asked if he knew of it, as I was interested in obtaining one. Lo and behold, Ken came to the USA to attend the SAM Champs at Westover Field, Massachusetts, in July (1990) and, with him, he brought me one of the engines. It's the MM3, manufactured by Z Model, Via Solferino, 31020 Frescada, Treviso, Italy,.

When Ken handed it to me, I was very impressed from the start, as it comes packaged in a clear enclosure complete with hand pump (bicycle type), tank, connecting lines, and engine - all in plastic construction. The plastic tank is smaller than a liter-sized container, the type used for packaging soda products. The label read: Maximum Pressure 7 Bars (9.6 psi) - hard to believe, but true. Supplied is a molded, red plastic prop with spinner, resembling a P-30 rubber-powered prop.

The engine cylinder is clear plastic and thus transparent. You can see the connecting rod, which is not connected to the piston, but free floating with a ball joint at the end of the rod, which rides freely in the piston cavity without a rod. I couldn't wait to run it when I found that the entire flight gear, plastic, tank, engine, connecting fittings and propeller weighed a mere 49 grams.

I immediately put it through a trial test run. Using the hand pump in accordance with the instructions, I stroked the pump handle 50 times. It was great; one flip rind it ran about 2 to 2-1/2 minutes. At this point, I decided that the hand pump was not for me, as I wanted to know just what pressure there would be in the tank for purposes of control and safety. The tanlk does have a safety pressure relief valve, which is designed to limit the maximum pressureof the tank. I felt that a pressure gauge should be employed, rather than depending on the relieving pressure of the valve; besides, as lazy as I am, my arm got tired with the hand pump.

I went to the local outlet store and purchased a 12-volt auto-type air compressor; this comes complete with a wire extension and plug for insertion into a car cigarette lighter receptacle. The pump comes with a pressure gauge and can generate up to 220 psi of pressure; this was ideal for my purpose..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Hi Steve - Here is Joe Beshar's Medusa from Model Builder magazine issue 07-91. Joe Beshar recently passed away. His model designs will always be admired and flown everywhere.

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