Spook 48 (oz7808)

About this Plan

Spook 48. Modern RC electric version of the 1940 vintage Spook design.

Note The Electric Spook design also appeared in Silent Flight see Spook 48 (oz12176). This here is the plan as it appeared in RM, 2002.

Quote: "In the May 1990 issue of this magazine the plans for my 96 inch glow-powered Spook was published. Since then many Spooks have been built, and I have had many letters and pictures from happy owners from all over the world. My Spook has had over 1,000 flights and is still undamaged and in good flying condition. As I got older I became interested in electric powered models. I found it was easier to go to the flying field with a charged battery model, transmitter, charger, and a few tools and be able to fly. No heavy toolbox, fuel container, pump, starting batteries, or cleaning materials, etc, are required. Also there were no fuel stains in my car or on my clothes after a day's flying.

There is much interest now in small lightweight electric powered models and I felt that the Spook would be an ideal model to build and an excellent one for beginners.

The original Spook (oz53) was 48 in in size and was designed in 1940 by Barney Snyder and John Muir. The 48 in Spook was a free-flight model, and with its beautiful gull wing and large stabilizer was an extremely stable flier which would make it most suitable for electric powered flight. You can take off and climb high up, shut off the motor, and it will glide around and maybe catch a thermal; when it descends, you can restart the motor and climb up again. It's lots of fun flying this way. Well, now if you feel that you must own and fly an electric Spook, let's get started.

Construction. Motor: I used a Master Airscrew 3.5:1 geared electric motor for power and 7 cells (see battery box details) giving approximately a 12 to 15 oz per sq wing loading, depending on the size of the battery pack. A larger size battery will give a longer flying time, but will increase the wing loading and the model will fly faster. Using a lighter battery will shorten the power on flying time but will also make the model much lighter and, of course, it will fly slower. Study the battery table and you can experiment with different sized battery packs and propellers..."

Note this is a low resolution plan. The Silent Flight version at Spook 48 (oz12176) is a clearer scan.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics.

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