Da Box (oz8820)

About this Plan

Da Box. Free flight power model. For 1/2A - A power.

Quote: "Back in the Fall of 1952, shortly after entering the USAF, I decided to design a new free flight to fly in the Air Force elimination meets in '53. I had some very definite ideas about what this new bird should have: A large horizontal stab and fairly long tail moment for stability under power and a flat, floating glide - but the moment shouldn't be so long it would hurt the power-to-glide transition. A thin airfoil at a low incidence setting for a hot climb, and undercambered to keep that floating glide. An easy-to-build, functional rigid fuselage that the large stab couldn't twist. As little dihedral as possible to get the most efficiency out of the wing. It should be able to handle the hottest engines I could find to put on it. Thus 'Da Box' was born.

Usually the designer-author can report: I built the first one and won contest after contest with it. Ha! Actually my first poor bird hit the ground so many times that it almost made a gravel pit out of our flying site. Back to the drawing board! The leading edge was planked and the straight ribs replaced with diagonal ones. Da Box was actually moving out so fast under power that the wings had been setting up a high speed flutter. I had seen this with models in a fatal power dive, but here it was happening to Da Box on the way up!

With the experience gained from the first one, the second 'A' job and the first 'B-C' job were built and taken to their first contest. Along with me was another open flier who had built a B version and a junior flier with an A version. At the end of the day Da Box was first in A open, second in A junior, first and second in B open and second in -C open. This was not only the Da Box's first contest, but also the first for the two fliers with me!

The same two planes that I used here were taken to the 1953 USAF World Wide and won first in A, fifth in B and first in C. We then departed for the '53 Nats where they won 3rd in both A and C open. An A size, with a Torp 23, won first in B senior for Ronald Woods. Captain Kale Hardin built a Half-A version and won first in open at the '52 Plymouth Internationals..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 12/06/2017: added article, thanks to theshadow.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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