Osprey Bipe (oz6760)

About this Plan

Osprey Bipe 60. Radio control sport biplane model.

Quote: "These plans are my own. I found low resolution plans on RC Groups and knew I could replace them with higher quality ones. I also cleaned up the article/building instructions. I am sending these in 3 parts. The designer is Alex Bouknight and originally published in RCM in March, 1989. Plan # 1038."

Quote: "Alex Bouknight has designed another classic, only this time it's a bipe. Balsa is his favourite material and feels every modeler needs to build at least one biplane in their lifetime, This is a good one to start.

When you think of a model airplane, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The first thing I think of is balsa wood. All of us got our start modeling at some point in our lives with that first trainer type kit or Control Line model. The smell of ambroid still gives me that nostalgic feeling. Tremendous strides have been made with the new composite type materials, often found on the scale type ships, so construction of the whole aircraft can be accomplished without a single piece of balsa wood. Prefab kits abound that get you in the air in a hurry, and that is fine if you are in a hurry. I get as much satisfaction out of the building as I do the flying, and nothing beats balsa wood as a fun medium to work with. A workshop, some simple tools, and a little creative time is all that is needed to turn out a beautiful product of which you can be proud.

With each new project, I try to cover new ground, try something a little different. The Elliptic series had the elliptical wing, the Osprey, a mid-wing with neutral stability characteristics; why not a classic biplane? Nothing gives you a more classic look or feel and a perfect project for my favorite material, balsa wood. Besides,everyone needs to build at least one biplane in their lifetime, right?

On the subject of balsa wood. I have found a source of very top quality balsa wood for you scratch builders. Superior Aircraft Materials, P.O. Box 8082, Long Beach, California 90808, (213) 865-3220, sells some of the highest quality wood I have found to date and I would highly recommend them for your next project. I used them for the wood source on my prototype aircraft. Besides, if you are going to take the time to scratch build an aircraft, you might as well use good wood. Choose the wood carefully, and build light, and you will end up with a good flying ship.

The airfoil chosen is the NACA632A series which I have found to exhibit very smooth characteristics at all angles of attack and produces the high lift/low drag figures I wanted and is used on both wings and the stab. I designed the fuselage with symmetry around the thrust/stab centerline. The bottom wing and stab incidence is 0°. Effective dihedral is achieved through the L.E. taper on both wings with no actual dihedral needed built in. If the model needs a bit of negative incidence in the top wing, 1/2° to 1°, this can be done by putting a washer under the rear wing bolts. Build it with 0° and adjust during the knife edge trimming sequence... "

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics.

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