Tempo (oz9645)

About this Plan

Tempo. High performance A-1 towliner develped for use with the Benedek airfoil and Jedelsky thin wing construction.

Quote: "Benedek airfoils, used extensively in Europe on high performance models of all types, have been used rarely in the United States because of the difficulty involved in the construction of wings this thin. Apparently most Europeans don't mind the time and work involved in this painstaking labor. Too, many Europeans build only a few models a year and can afford the time while most of us build an entire fleet for each season.

During the past year a new school of construction has come out of Austria. Erich jedelsky of Vienna has evolved the Jedelsky-Benedek method of constructing the very thin airfoil wings. Of particular use to the Nordic and A-1 class flier, the airfoil has been used successfully with small gas models as well.

I saw a few Jedelsky wings on gliders at the 1959 Nationals and the 1959 Air Force World Wide contest and decided shortly after the 1959 Nats to try my own hand at this type of construction, being most impressed with the short time required in building the wing. I decided on the A-1 class first to see just how it worked - the A-2 will be built later though!

My first attempt was mediocre. The wing went together very fast - only a little harder than a large hand launch glider but I didn't understand what incidence set ups in relation to the towhook and CG would be required.

Tempo is the result of a series of models or combinations or wings and tails. No fancy, exotic contruction was employed in the model at all, a simple fuselage and rubber model type stabilizer and, of course, the Jedelsky type wing; and easy, rugged A-1 glider to be flown in any contest and most weather.

One evening was all that was required to completely finish the wing. An entire weekend for the complete model and we were ready to fly!

Wing: Since the wing construction is the basis for this entire article, let's start here. Pick very soft, light balsa for the forward piece and fairly stiff, quarter grained balsa for the aft. A very straight (metal if possible) straight edge is used to truw up the edges of both..."

Tempo, MAN, October 1960.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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