Suspense (oz8963)

About this Plan

Suspense. FAI free flight power model.

Quote: "When it came to selecting an airfoil, I chose the MVA 301, a successful section (at the time) for FAI power models. Wing construction was centered around a D tube (balsa torque box) leading edge, to give a warp resistant structure. This proved a wise choice when in '62, I changed to the G610B (7.8%) airfoil. The additional stiffness of the D tube prevented wing flutter common in many thin section, high aspect ratio power models. The fuselage was designed around a long tail moment for good duration. Also, a reasonably high pylon for stability, but not so high as to cause excessive looping ten-dencies requiring large amounts of down thrust. The engine was left exposed and mounted on a cut-back Tatone 19 mount. This allowed me to interchange engines and to take advantage of the hottest mill cur-rently available. The vertical tail was rigidly fixed to the fuselage ahead of the stab to prevent any trim change due to misalignment (often encountered in a rudder-stab combination set-up). The fuse structure consisted of a four longeron box, with a built-up wing pylon, and solid sheet vertical tail and sub-rudder. Both the fuselage and wing were covered with silk for maximum strength. The horizontal stab was covered with Jap tissue, both to prevent excessive warping and to keep the tail light. The original 'Suspense' was finished in the summer of '60 in time for the local FAI eliminations. The model performed beautifully, but alas, in the third round she went OOS with a stuck timer (my first encounter with a clockwise DT timer). The remainder of the day was spent in a rented airplane searching the area downwind of the flying site, but to no avail. Luckily, the model was found a few days later by a farmer and returned unharmed..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 20/11/2017: added article, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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