Viper (oz6491)

About this Plan

Viper. Radio control sport model, for .10 - .15 engines and 3 channel radio.

Quote: "The monoplane fighter was born several times, but the Establishment didn't seem to want it to live. 'Too weak,' they said; 'Wings will break off,' they said; 'Biplanes for us,' they said. And true, some wings did break off. 'We told you so,' they said.

The biplane reigned supreme, but the monoplane was to come, and designers learned about structures, and new materials were developed and tested. After all, it was the natural thing, who ever saw a biplane bird?

It took a while, but at last, it was there, looking a little gawky with its widespread undercarriage legs, reminiscent of a newborn colt, a little unsteady on its feet. And, just to make sure, the wing had a few struts to make certain it wouldn't break off - but it only had one wing.

The monoplane era was about to begin, but the biplane wasn't finished yet. Still to come were the last words in the biplane's long history, begun in the fires of old wars; still to come were the Hawker Furies, and the Gloster Gladiators. But the writing was on the wall. The elements of the fighters of the future were almost all present and, from these cautious beginnings came the Spitfires, Me 109's, and Hurricanes, lean and deadly.

But this is still in the future as far as our model is concerned. We distilled features from many early monoplanes for our model, all the forerunners of the World War II fighter to come; fighters long forgotten, such as the Dewoitine 510, the Moraine MS 325, the de Havilland 77, and the Vickers Jockey. Re-member those? (You do??)

We borrowed the strong and sturdy undercarriage, designed for the rough grass airfields of yesteryear, and the open cockpit, so that the pilot could feel the wind in his cheeks, and sight his machine guns through a primitive gunsight, and the tail skid which was usually all the braking provided. And so we ended up with the 'Viper' - a semi-semi scale model of an airplane that didn't really exis., So, if you're looking for a little nostalgia, try this. The construction notes follow.

Construction. Fuselage: The fuselage is built with the use of the 'inside out' technique, and begins with cutting out the two fuselage sides from 3/32 sheet. Mark on each of these sheets the position of all the frames and cross members, not forgetting to make one side left and the other side right. Cement the 3/16 square longerons at the top and bottom edges of these sheets, then install all the cross pieces..."

Direct submission to Outerzone. Scanning by Don at EAC, cleanup by theshadow.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics, thanks to theshadow.

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