Splinter (oz8720)

About this Plan

Splinter. Control line combat model. High aspect ratio design.

Quote: "Its shape and proportions dictated by math, this combat machine proved many times that the .15 can take the .35! Splinter, by Bill Netzeband.

Your quick look at the photos and lead blurb got you this far, so stick around for some revelations. This little ship is perhaps the most completely engineered and debugged combat machine so far presented. Its shape and proportions were dictated by mathematics, not my whim, and the structure was developed to quickly build a straight, light wing which will survive a few unscheduled landings.

Of the ten ships built during development (since June 1964) there were no flying problems, except powerplant. Most changes were to the basic structure to beef-up weak spots. The ship has been flown in England against the best the World Combat Champs could muster, and was never touched; while taking pieces of streamer at will. Dan Jones did this tremendous job during fun fly-ing sessions at the '66 World Championships. Of course, having Dan dem-onstrate your Combat design is about as risky as opening the water conces-sion in Death Valley. Nonetheless, the superiority of the Splinter, in all depart-ments, was spectacular. We must give the airplane credit, since Dan was very impressed with the ability of the British flyers. They love to fly combat, up to six at a time, and are very skillful. Besides all this, we have had everyone we can find try her out, and to a man they've had a ball. It's a fun machine in the air, since it will do anything you want, when you call for it.

The 15 powered combat ship is supposed to be cheaper, tougher, and slower. Most scaled down from 35-sized ships are just that, unfortunately suffering from being smaller. Lacking the brute power of a 35 to haul its excess induced drag around corners, the 15 ship didn't measure up. You'll note that the Splinter's basic difference is a slim wing and tail. Herein lies the whole secret of superior performance.

You've seen the induced drag equation used to prove low aspect ratio woings best for a speed job, in the drag department. Let's now use it to prove higher aspect ratio for maneuverable types..."

Update 12/05/2017: Added PDFvector modern redrawn version of the plan, thanks to GeorgeAlbo.

Quote: "Hello Steve Mary, Here is a plan of the Splinter Combat Wing by Wild Bill Netzeband. I don't remember where I got this plan, but it was redrawn from the original by N. Holden. I did nothing to it other than send it to you. This plan features the 'Alternate' wing tip that was on the original plan, as such this wingspan is 42", versus the original span of 39". The original was powered by a Cox Tee Dee .15 SPL MK II. This model was featured in the April 1967 issue of American Modeler... Thanks, George"

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
PDFvector version of the plan.

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