Eagle (oz904)

About this Plan

Eagle. Pre-war design for rubber powered free flight model. It seems this was the first ever plan printed in Aeromodeller.

Quote: "Don Knight finds out for us what it was like to build and fly the first model ever published by Aeromodeller in November 1935.

At a glance the 36 in span Eagle looks like a simple rubber powered model of modest dimensions and, probably, even more modest performance. However, on reading the instructions it was clear that Mr Burchell, the designer, liked to do things the hard way.

First of all it was built mainly of birch and the joints were glued and then nailed right through the wood and into the building board. When the glue was dry the component had to be prised off the board and the ends of the nails hammered over against a flat iron. Not only that but many of the curved parts were to be steamed in situ on the board after they had been nailed in place. Strange to say he used balsa for the tailplane tips and some of the spacers in the fuselage. I wonder why he didn't use more of it? Was it too dear, or not readily available? Or did he not trust this strange light wood.

Construction. I'm afraid to say that I fell down at the first hurdle, Despite searching through various timber merchants and shops I just could not find any birch. Birch ply yes, but birch strip? - never heard of it. So I was forced to resort to spruce. As this was much used in contemporary models I didn't feel too bad about it and a kind friend cut me the required strip. I steamed all the curved parts in a piece of pipe rammed onto the kettle spout on the gas stove. They were then formed on jigs before building. I just could not see howl could get a jet of steam to form them on my rather large board as in the original instructions.

Still I did nail the parts to the board and clench the nails on a rather splendid blacksmith's anvil after the glue had dried, I used a waterproof wood glue in place of animal glue that needed a flame under the pot to keep it runny enough to use. Eventually the frame was completed and, standing there on it's streamlined aluminium wheels, it had a certain charm.

Covering. Covering called for proofed silk so I went to Vic Smeed to ask about it. The answer is a coat of boiled linseed mixed with a drying agent available from art shops. But, said Vic, a coat of banana oil would do the job just as well. The wings and tail surfaces are single surface covered. Blow all that turbulence and drag from spars dangling in the airflow. Torsional stiffness isn't exactly great, either. I had a lot of trouble covering the fin..."

Supplementary file notes

Planfile includes article (from Aeromodeller, Nov 1995).

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