Short Skyvan (oz8374)

About this Plan

Short SC.7 Skyvan. Scale twin model for control line.

Quote: Short Brothers STOL cargo plane is all-balsa box with wings. Uses two 049 engines.

I decided to write Garrett-Airesearch Division of Arizona, who pictured the plane in their motor ad. They kindly forwarded my request to Remmer-Werner, Inc of St Louis, US agents for Short Brothers Skyvan, who generously forwarded 3-view plans plus beautiful colored photos, and also advised me that the plane was made by Short Brothers & Harland, Limited of Belfast, Ireland. I wrote to Ireland and shortly thereafter, received much interesting literature regarding the plane.

The Skyvan originally was made over ten years ago, but its appeal was limited due to underpowered engines. Since adapting the Airesearch's Turboprop engines, the plane has come into its own, and is now being used in the remote corners of the world for cargo and passenger work. The model's tremendous weight-lifting capacity, good range, and practical STOL characteristics, make it quite unique and successful in its design application. It has a span of 64 ft, length of 40 ft, range of 570 miles carrying approximately 3000 lbs of cargo or people. Short Skyvan can carry 4000 lbs. at a shorter range of about 250 miles. For passenger service, 18 seats can be provided. One very practical feature, the rear cargo door is practically level with the ground for quick loading and unloading.

Fuselage: Although it looks difficult, the fuselage is easy to construct, since it is basically a box section. It has a constant width from front to rear. We make it in two sections. The nose portion is made up of cemented balsa blocks and 3/8 sheets and the section behind the nose portion made of 1/8 sheet balsa.

Rear section: Cut the side panels from 1/4 in sheet as illustrated. Cement 1/8 x 1/8 balsa strips along the length 1/8 in from the edge. This provides a reinforcing ledge for the top and bottom 1/8 balsa sheet panels and also provides stock to the fuselage, to radius the edges.

Slot the side panels in the rear for the stabilizer and also provide the cutout for the 3-3/8 x 1/2 in balsa block that makes the extended flange landing gear.

Please note three balsa sheet formers that help hold the fuselage together. We have to provide cutouts in the rear ones for the elevator pushrod. The bellcrank support is made of 1/8 plywood having triangular gusset plates in the underside, which connect to a 1/4 in balsa sheet reinforcement plate on the right side of the fuselage, where the leadout wire strain exists. This reinforcement plate can be made larger than the plans indicate, if you wish to do so.

The top and bottom panels can be added after the bellcrank mount, pushrod, etc have been added to fuselage. Please note the bulbous section over the wing and fuselage is constructed and assembled after the wing is cemented into position on the basic fuselage. This is detailed later in the article. We provide a short former made from 1/4 in balsa sheet as a wing platform for the trailing edge only..."

Attached is Paul H. Schaaf's Skyvan from American Aircraft Modeler magazine issue 01-70. Regards, 'theshadow'

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages.

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