Kirin (oz9059)

About this Plan

Kirin. Control line combat model. 1/2A combat, span 882mm. For 1.5cc PAW diesel motor (PAW 149).

Quote: "Build this ideal beginner's combat model, designed by Dave Clarkson for 1.5cc engines.

BACK in the good old days'of the 1960s SMAE Combat, when I started my aeromodelling career, everyone but everyone seemed to fly combat models. The local club fields were full of them: Warlords (oz12240), Liquidators (oz9761), Cleavers (oz2581), Dominators (oz2605), Early Birds (oz3271), September Warriors (oz5391) etc - and contest entries were huge, over 100 entries were quite common. All very different today where the SMAE Noise Code has relegated FAI Combat into the hands of 'bona fide' competitors on remote fields. What went wrong? To me the answer is that the models became too big, too fragile, too fast and the motors became too expensive to run, too difficult to operate and far too noisy.

What a disaster, for Combat is real fun - quite probably the most 'fun' event in all of control-line aeromodelling and certainly the one event in past years that brought beginners into control-line in droves. What are we to do about this sad situation? For me, 1/2A Combat is the answer; cheap, quiet and fun - 1/2A Combat has it all!

'Kirin' has been developed from my APS Tamerlane design. Features retained are the very low wing loading required for high manoeuvrability and a simple, con-veniently sized structure for speed and cheapness of construction. New features are a thicker aerofoil of improved profile and in-creased tail moment and elevator area, all for increased manoeuvrability, plus a revised wing assymetry and lead-out rake combination, with the addition of tip weight, to give improved line-tension up-wind and in sharp manoeuvres. Finally, a less angular outline has been adopted in the interests of appearance.

Structurally, the requirement for some-times hard to get straight and light pre-shaped balsa leading edge (LE) and trailing edge (TE) sections has been eliminated as has the presence of the major weakness in Tamerlane's wing structure the straight butt joints at the rib/LE and rib/TE junc-tions. The change in these joints in 'Kirin' to incorporate a partial overlap has reduced the need for precision in rib cutting and im-proved crash damage resistance. One final point is that 'Kirin' is a totally metric design as opposed to 'Tamerlane' which was an Imperial design!

Direct flight comparison between Kirin and Tamerlane has shown Kirin to handle a lot easier and to have greatly increased manoeuvrability which has resulted in a very effective combat model indeed. This high manoeuvrability when combined with Kirin's cheap, simple and tough structure makes it an ideal model for beginners for it is easy to build right, has the manoeuvrability to get out of nearly any trouble imaginable and the toughness to survive impact with the ground when that cannot be avoided. Truly an ideal model for the beginner or the sports flier.

The materials list for Kirin is sparce so, unusually for me, the following list is a complete one..."

Scan from DBHL, cleanup by theshadow.

ref DBHL-6783.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 11/08/2017: added article, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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