Miles Sparrowhawk (oz7872)

About this Plan

Miles Sparrowhawk. Radio control scale model, for Merco 49 power. From RCM Annual 1966.

Quote: "One of the finest scale ships ever presented, the Miles Sparrowhawk placed high at the British Nationals. An added bonus - the Sparrowhawk is a top sport flier as well.

THE choice of the Sparrowhawk for multi scale evolved as the result of the failure of another scale model. It was just three weeks before the 1964 British Nationals. I had just completed a Hawker Fury, which was to be my entry for that year, having spent six months on this particular model. Needless to say I had high hopes for the Fury, and you can imagine my feelings when, on the day of the test flight, the model proved to be underpowered with a Merco 49. At that time the Merco 61 was not in production and the only altemative was a McCoy 60 or ST56 - neither of which could be obtained in time for the Nationals.

I still had my Macchi 202 (oz6255) from the previous year, but under British rules a winning model cannot be entered two years in succession, so there was no choice left but to build a new model - and in three weeks timel Searching through all of my aviation magazines to find air suitable subject which could be built in such a short time, finally I decided upon the Sparrowhawk. It has a typical multi layout and is almost as easy to build as a normal stunt model. As a result, I had it finished three days before the Nats, and just in time for two test flights. I also managed to place second in the R/C scale event which was more than anticipated, considering the circumstances.

I flew the Sparrowhawk for the rest of the season and it has proved to be an excellent performer. It will compete on equal terms with Class III contest multi designs. For the scale buffs, there are no deviations from scale and construction is simple and straight forward.

Construction. Commence by building the fuselage. This is of conventional construction with balsa sides and ply doublers. The bottom sheeting should be left off until the stabilizer has been made and fitted in order to enable the elevator push rod to be attached to the elevator horn. The wing root fairings should be constructed after the wings have been completed. With the wings lightly cemented in place the fairing blocks can then be shaped to fit accurately between the wing and fuselage. When a satisfactory ft has been obtained, the wing may be removed and the fairing blocks cemented permanently in place.

The wings are also of conventional construction and need no special advice except for one small point, which applies to all sheet covered wings. The sheeting should always be applied from the leading edge back as it is easier than trying to fit a piece of sheet be-tween a leading and trailing edge sec-tion that have already been applied..."

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