Drake II (oz65)

About this Plan

Drake II. Radio control sport seaplane model.

The original free flight Drake (oz1251) design first appeared in MAN, Nov 1951. This here is a later and larger version, for radio control. This one is 48 in span, for .15 power.

This is an Uncle Willies plan.

Update 9/4/2025: Added article, thanks to theshadow.

Quote: "Benny Howard's DGA (Damn Good Airplane) applies to all of Ken's designs. They perform very well. This .15-powered flying boat adds a new feather to his cap. Fly it off land, too, with detachable wheel gear.

SOME 28 years ago I designed a free-flight flying boat named the Drake. Bill Winter was the editor of Model Airplane News at the time, and bought the design for publication. It was one of the most popular designs of the time. (Editor's Note: Top on the plans list for years.) Bill even got a letter from a reader telling how his flew out of sight over the Atlantic, and three weeks later was returned by a fisherman who found it floating some 50 miles offshore!

Recently, I received a letter from Bill, asking if I would be interested in making an updated version of the Drake (it was a 1/2A design) with radio control and a .15 engine up front.

Sounded like a good idea, so I agreed. Should be simple enough. Move the step back under the center of gravity, since elevator control was available (the free flight had the step forward of the CG so it wouldn't plow and porpoise on takeoff). Also, for greater simplicity of rudder control linkage, I added a center fin and rudder, leaving the tip fins as they were on the free flight. The resulting triple tail brought various comments from modelers as to whether it was inspired by the old Boeing 314 Flying Boat, or the Lockheed Constellation, or the Bellanca Cruiser. None of them. It was 'inspired' by the ease of operating the rudder.

A four-foot span seemed about right for a .15-powered version, so I enlarged the plans accordingly, made the changes mentioned, and built the model. It looked great.

The first flight was made with the removable landing gear attached. That flight was fine - but almost a free flight. The triple fins made it so directionally stable that the rudder was barely able to make the model turn. So, I took it home, enlarged the rudder and put it to maximum travel.

The Max .15 that I used for power was the same engine I had on my Honcho Gasser when I won the Intermediate Class championship in aerobatics at the 1959 Nats! And the engine was two years old even the. But that 22-year-old Max is one of the smoothest operating engines ever built; with an 8-inch diameter, 4-inch pitch prop it revs up to 12.000 and idles down, reliably, to 3000 rpm - better than today's versions.

Since the idle was so reliable, I ran it in the swimming pool to Check flotation and water handling It looked great. So, out to the lake to fly it off' water.

You'd think by now that I could take the test flights of a new design - even a new version of an old design - in stride. Nope. I still get nervous. Item: I have a retrieval boat, seven feet long and three and a half fret wide. It's plastic, light, very maneuverable - if you remember to take two oars with you. I only took one! Another example comes up a bit later.

T'here was a slight breeze blowing. making a nice ripple on the water. With my friends Jim Wade and Ilan Koo helping, we fired up the Max 15, set the Drake II in the water and started to taxi out. Right then I knew it needed further modification. As it turned crosswind, the down-wind wing tip went into the water. The 'sploats' didn't provide enough flotation. I call them sploats because they're not wing-tip floats, nor are they really sponsons, so that's where the hybrid name comes from.

It was at this time that I remembered that when flying free flight flying boats, you don't have engine control, so the takeoff is made by holding the model headed into the wind, or slightly quartering to the wind to the right so that as it moves forward it turns into the wind and takes off.

Anyway, I finally got it into that position - quartering into the wind - and gave it throttle. It took off, but when it left the water it had already turned slightly crosswind to the left (the rudder was still not effective enough) and the wind got under the right wing and dumped the Drake II into the drink. Blast!

Ilan is an accomplished canoeist, so with one oar, he got out to the model and retrieved it. The only damage was a broken arm on the left sploat, but the radio got wet.

Several times I've been asked why I don't recommend flying off salt water. The reason is simple. if you don't have your radio fully encapsulated so it won't get wet, salt water will ruin it. Fresh water will temporarily short it out, but if you get to it fast and blow it dry, then let it sit in the sun, you usually can get it back in operation in about an hour or so. And that's what we did.

While the radio was drying out we repaired the broken arm with Hot Stuff. We didn't have any microballoons or baking soda, so we used plain old dusty dirt! It worked, too.

Finally. everything was ready for try number two. We were going to hand launch, since we knew it couldn't handle a cross wind, but the wind died down. so another takeoff seemed worth trying..."

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