Lady Samantha (oz7901)

About this Plan

Lady Samantha. Radio control sport model. Vintage-styled design.

Quote: "Quote: "A lesser known aircraft from aeronuttycal history. History would have us believe that Bleriot, a Frenchman, flew the channel first and, but for a stroke of good luck and some coincidence, this fallacy would never have been disproved.

1909 And All That. My main interest is the era of the 30's but I acquired some issues of The Aero from 1909. These gave me a deep insight into the state of the art in that year. (Items that can be confirmed from these magazines have been marked with an asterisk.) Not long after this, I attended a house clearance sale in the hope of picking up an old engine or magazines. I happened to stumble over a box of junk and a large diary fell open. The sketch on the open page made me buy the box. The story that unfolded was a tale of brilliance, gullibility, skullduggery, and disillusionment. The diaries had been written by one Archibald Cholmondely-Fortescue-Smythe, the second son of the seventeenth Earl of Clapham Junction and covered the years of t908 to 1913. The box also contained some photos and sketch pads. Unfortunately, much of this material was damaged by mice and then by the cat that had killed the mice which seem to have had an unfortunate effect on the cat's digestive system.

[Note: there are 3 pages of highly amusing, not to say hilarious, fake historical notes on this aircraft to read through, before the actual build notes appear...]

Building the model. Fuselage. Construction is very easy. The fuselage is built from 1/8 square spruce longerons with 1/8 sq balsa cross members and diagonals. The front portion is covered with 1/64 ply; which must be added to the sides before assembling them to the formers as the longerons are cut at the bends; the cuts are then filled with epoxy when the bends are made.

The undercarriage can made very simple as shown and the extra parts soldered on from scrap brass tube; alternatively, a working undercarriage can be made which is more complicated but works very well. This is shown on the drawings.

The fuel tank can be made out of brass sheet and brass tube or you can fit a 2 oz clunk tank, but you may have trouble finding one that is short enough. The tank can be fitted and removed with the top decking on but it is easier to do the initial installation before the deck has been glued on.

The wing is heldon with a dowel at the front and a nlylon bolt through the bottom. This is a neat and unobtrusive method.

Wings: The wings are very easy to build, all the ribs are the same with the exception that those in the center section are cut away for the dihedral braces. The spars must be rock hard balsa. My wood was not quite hard enough so I laminated the main spar up from spruce and balsa.

The ailerons are operated by 1/16 MW pushrods and Goldberg #420 bellcranks. I sheeted between the root rib and the next rib out with 1/16 balsa sheet on the top only to hold the covering. The center wing fairing is covered with 1/64 ply and is glued in place after covering. Make sure that the wing attach ment bolt lines up..."

Supplementary file notes

Article, thanks to hlsat, JHatton.

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