Warlord (oz9012)

About this Plan

Warlord. Radio control pattern plane, for .60 power.

Quote: "A graceful and thoughtfully designed contest pattern plane. Flies great in mile high Denver - should be fantastic at sea level! Warlord, by Jim Wilmot.

Initial drawings were completed only after intensive study of the machines flown at the 1971 Internationals. From the information gleaned from this study, future trends were extrapolated and all of my past ten years of competition savvy was smoothly blended into one competent design.

Strict parameters for design were set up in order to achieve perfection. Con-sistency is first and foremost. Perfection of aeronautical design means nothing if the guidance, propulsion, or retraction systems are not on the same level of perfection. The old adage that the weakest link determines the strength of the chain seems apropos. To this end, Pro-Line, Supertigre, and Rom-Air were chosen respectively.

Consistency is the name of the game in that very often driving some 500 mi. to a contest, only three flights for the weekend will be allowed: two on Satur-day and one on Sunday (and that's rough when you only get one flight in a day!). Therefore, there is absolutely no room for mistakes. Every flight has to be the best one of the meet. This principle must also be kept in mind during construction, for a slip-up in assembly may (and probably will) blow a contest.

Modern RC competition history may be divided into four main categories; Smog-Hog, Taurus, Kwik-Fli, and post Kwik-Fli era. In this last era, almost any aircraft has the capability of winning any contest; there is no No. One design —they all fly pretty much alike. Therein lies the rub. An old element has increased in importance--showman-ship_

Performance is now simply a given factor; the variable exponent takes the form of presentation and pilot skill. The game has inadvertently developed into a form of one-design competition. To win at this kind of game, one must stand above the competition. The meet must be won before the flight begins through the use of an impressive-looking machine and a tremendous amount of practice.

Here are some of the principles set up in the design stages of the Warlord: The airframe must be such that power can be utilized as efficiently as possible. It should be smaller than the Warlock (oz8878) - my design featured in November 1972 AAM - and yet appear to be the same size as the current trend. Appearance should be given same priority as per-formance.

To achieve these goals, one main point was kept in mind at all times: cut drag wherever possible. I chose a 12-1/2% somewhat laminar section, a heavily contoured fuselage and employed a flying stab. All information was fed into a CR-193 'computer' (modular exponents) and it was determined that, at periods of barometric pressure 29.98, 670 temperature, 340 dew point and 45% humidity, optimum performance would be achieved (these are the forcasted cliamtic conditions for the 1975 Internationals)..."

Warlord, American Aircraft Modeler, October 1973.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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