Swan (oz9116)
About this Plan
Mercury Swan Glider. Towline glider model.
Quote: "Dear Mary & Steve, I've found another Mercury plan for you. This one is the 'Swan' glider by J. Baguley. No sign of it anywhere on the OZ or any other site. A gracefull bird! No printwood I'm afraid, since it's all in the model shown in the recent photo I'm sending [more pics 003]. A little re-covering and I think I will tow this one up, even if it is over 40 years old. I imagine, and hope, it will still fly; there don't seem to be any warps! Can't say how happy I am to share these plans with you and others. Kind regards, Nicholas"
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Update 19/05/2020: Added 'article', thanks to DavidHolland.
Quote: "Mary, These are from June & July 1973 Aeromodeller and are part of a series (titled: Back to Square One) that used the Mercury Swan as the model. As the wood print is missing from the file, I thought these might be useful to someone wishing to build this model as it shows its structure quite well. Kind regards,"
Update 12/06/2020: Added printwood scans, thank to MikeBrennan.
Quote: "Hi Mary and Steve. I note that there are no parts templates shown for the Mercury Swan glider recently listed in the latest site updates. Plan ID 9116, 19/05/20. You may find the attached PDFs of all printed parts useful. All should print full size. Many thanks for the hard work you both input to ensure everyone can enjoy our hobby and please do keep up the excellent work. Kind regards,"
Update 15/06/2020: Replaced article file with complete version, thanks to DavidHolland. Previous copy was 5 pages. This one is 21 pages long, and covers full construction in great detail, through covering, doping and trimming. Then fitting a DT, and finally doing repairs. Also includes a drawing of the wing and tailplane rib profiles.
Supplementary file notes
Article.
Kit instructions.
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(oz9116)
Swan
by Jim Baguley
from Mercury
1959
42in span
Glider F/F Kit
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 22/08/2017
Filesize: 758KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: NicholasTucker, MikeBrennan, DavidHolland
Downloads: 1526
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User comments
I am searching for rib sections etc, and found this reference to an ebay image: i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzkxWDE…. May be of some help as the image shows the rib sections and more. I am going to try using GIMP to scale the sections up. Fingers crossed.
MalcolmJ - 07/09/2017
As with all these kind of gliders of this period, the airfoil surely will be Naca 4409.
Pit - 07/09/2017
If this can help: I have scanned the wing-tip rib (W3) which is tilted 45 degrees. It measures 5.9" (15.0 cm) and the thickness of the wing at the front spar is 0.5" (12.0cm) [more pics 005].
NicholasTucker - 08/09/2017
I managed to find a drawing of the Swan with wing rib and tail rib sections, and working on the wing ribs being spaced at 2 inches was able to scale up OK using GIMP. This link gives many Swan diagrams which should help anyone building her: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Swan+glider,+Mercury+kit. Not sure how accurate my guesses have been, but I ended up with the wing chord at 6 inches and the main wing ribs at 5.33 inches. Overall size of the plan before putting through Posterasor is width 34.11" by 21.42". Hope this is of help. Beautiful looking aeroplane.
MalcolmJ - 10/09/2017
I have just measured the original plan I sent to OZ and I find: width: 33.85ins, height: 21.50ins. Wing chord: 6ins, wing rib: 5.33 (or perhaps more exactly: 5.325ins). I think it would be a good idea if the exact dimensions of all "full size", (e.g. kit) plans, were published each time they are put up rather than just relying on wing-span.
NicholasTucker - 11/09/2017
A couple of photos of my recently completed Mercury Swan built from your downloaded plan and parts sheets [main pic, 008]. It has now been test flown and flies beautifully; it is very stable on a lightweight bungee launcher (1/8" rubber). Mine has a framed canopy.
Peter Sanders - 10/11/2020
Some nice action photos of my Mercury Swan, flying today at our club flying site [009-012]. I had some very long walks to retrieve the model. Perfect on a lightweight bungee launcher.
Peter Sanders - 31/03/2021
That's a lovely Swan from Peter Sanders. I very much appreciated seeing it. The Swan was my most successful early glider as a kid and I have always been fond of it
Simon C - 11/04/2021
Yes, Peter Saunder's Swan is lovely, much prettier than my 40 year old Swan shown above which needs some re-covering. I'm very pleased to see that the plan I scanned has resulted in someone getting this elegent bird back up in the air! That's what this site is all about...
Nicholas Tucker - 11/04/2021
I'm just starting to build Swan free flight glider. The main wing ribs holes are deeper than the 1/8" spars. Any idea why the designer would do that on purpose.
Paul Hill - 01/10/2024
Hi Paul,
It appears the spars on the centre wing panel are 3/16" x 1/8" so the cutouts look about right for them. The tip panels have 1/8" square spars so you'll just have to cut the slots a bit shallower. They're all labelled W1, probably just an oversight not to make a different pattern for the outer panel ribs. Good to spot that before you cut all the ribs.
Ian Salmon - 02/10/2024
I built one about 25 years ago using 3/8x1/8 spruce for the centre section spars and the same size balsa for the tips
Mike hollamby - 02/10/2024
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- Swan (oz9116)
- Plan File Filesize: 758KB Filename: Swan_Mercury_Glider_oz9116.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 14585KB Filename: Swan_Mercury_Glider_oz9116_article.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 286KB Filename: Swan_Mercury_Glider_oz9116_instructions.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 1832KB Filename: Swan_Mercury_Glider_oz9116_printwood.pdf
- help with downloads
Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.
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