Dayton-Wright Racer (oz9607)

About this Plan

1920 Dayton Wright Racer. Stand-off scale RC model (or 1/2A pylon racer) for Cox Tee-Dee .049 power.

Note this design uses the Ace constant chord foam wing.

Quote: "Our local club (Long Island R/C Society) held a 1/2A R/C Pylon Race at its November contest. Although only a few entrees showed up, many members left the field that day vowing that they would definitely be a participant at the next 1/2A Pylon Race. In reviewing that contest, it struck me that all of the entrants were flying mia wing configuration planes except one. This one fellow flew a high wing plane called the "Little Mulligan" which appeared as a construction article in RMC. The high wing arrangement seemed the right way to go and especially so for fellows just breaking into the 1/2A Pylon game. Since the Mulligan design was already covered. I started a search for another high wing racing design which would lend itself to the present rules. My club's VP, George Myers, came to the rescue with a book entitled, "Racing Planes and Air Racers" by Reed Kinert (Vol. I, reference series No. 1, 1909 to 1923). On page 40, appeared a simple three-view of the 1920 Dayton-Wright Racer. In addition, on page 41, three good photographs of the original plane were provided with some detailed captions. This reference led to the fact that the original airplane is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn, Michigan. It is interesting to note that this was the first successful racing plane with retractable landing gear. The wing also had a unique adjustable camber feature which provided a thick airfoil at low speeds and a thin overall airfoil at racing speeds. The original was built by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. then a subsidiary of General Motors, for the James Gordon, Bennett Race. Milton C. Baumann was the designer and, in fact, the plane is also referred to as the Baumann RB-1. A final reference was found in the July 1971 issue of American Aircraft Modeler which carried a detailed three-view by Bjorn Karlstrom.

One of the interesting departures in this design is the relatively low wing aspect ratio (shorter span and wider chord). Since the inception of 1/2A Pylon Racing, practically everyone has used the Ace foam wings which have a 35in span and a 5-1/2in chord. Using a suitable scale factor, my Dayton-Wright Racer worked out to a 30in wingspan and an average chord of 7in. Allowing for tip curvature you end up close to the 200 sq. in minimum wing area. It was at this point that I chose to depart slightly from the basic 1/2A Pylon rules which appeared in the May 1971 issue of RMC. These rules stipulated a constant chord wing. I just felt that too many good racing designs have to be dropped as model projects because of this one rule. Since my particular club allowed a tapered wing, I selected the outline of the original Dayton-Wright Racer wing. Should you want to meet the exact rules, the plans show an outline of an alternate, constant chord wing..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note this plan used the Ace Foam wing. For a plan showing how to construct a replacement wing in balsa (both tapered and straight-chord) see Ace Foam Wing (oz8557) thanks to AndyKunz.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages.

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