Stephens Akro (oz9854)

 

Stephens Akro (oz9854) by Frank Capan 1975 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Stephens Akro. Radio control stand-off scale aerobatic model. For .61 power.

Quote: "One day while browsing in the local hobby shop and looking through a magazine, I chanced upon a picture of a delightful little plane, the full-sized homebuilt Stephens Akro. I had been searching for a good looking scale model that I could fly in Stunt contests., and this looked as if it might do the trick. It appeared very clean and had straightforward lines that would make it easy to build - and best of all it looked as if it would be a great flyer. Now, that's really important.

If a plane looks as if it will fly well there is nothing to do except start drawing the plans and get things rolling. Right? Wrong! First you have to do a little research, such as finding some 3-views. Nothing was available,so I dropped a line to Stephens Aircraft and received a packet from them which included 3-views factory drawn to a scale of 1/8. I then proceeded to scale the drawings up 1-3/4 times to make the size of the model.

The original Stephens Akro was designed as a fully stressed acrobatic competition air-plane. It is just now becoming more popular and starting to appear around the country. Some pictures in the packet show some of the construction details as well as finished planes, and they are extremely well built.

This served to get me steamed up, so I started, in my own style, doing the drawings right on the balsa. Why waste time, right? Then I weakened and drew the wing pattern on paper so I could get a foam core cut. I needed to get going as quickly as possible because I had decided to go to the Nats (1974) and wanted to fly this thing in Scale, since they finally were including Stand-off that year. Mine are great Stand-off Scale models (that is, if you stand off far enough) but who cares, the name of the game is fun.

That is the way I got started; if you have a mind to start one too, let's get the ball rolling. You will have to build the wing fairly early to be able to fit it to the fuselage. The original was foam, thanks to the coaxing of Bob Upton. The plans show the root and tip rib for the foam wing fans, and for the built-up troops we have ours, too, so do whatever type you like. Keep the top of the wing flat and let the bottom taper for the dihedral. The built-up version does not show the spar cutouts in the ribs..."

Stevens Akro, MAN, December 1975.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction

Stephens Akro (oz9854) by Frank Capan 1975 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz9854)
    Stephens Akro
    by Frank Capan
    from Model Airplane News
    December 1975 
    64in span
    Scale IC R/C Civil
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 20/02/2018
    Filesize: 946KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: Circlip, RFJ
    Downloads: 1440

ScaleType:
  • Stephens_Akro | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz9854) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephens_Akro
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

Stephens Akro (oz9854) by Frank Capan 1975 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg

Do you have a photo you'd like to submit for this page? Then email admin@outerzone.co.uk

User comments

No comments yet for this plan. Got something to say about this one?
Add a comment

 

 
 

Download File(s):
 

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.

 

Terms of Use

© Outerzone, 2011-2025.

All content is free to download for personal use.

For non-personal use and/or publication: plans, photos, excerpts, links etc may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Outerzone with appropriate and specific direction to the original content i.e. a direct hyperlink back to the Outerzone source page.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's owner is strictly prohibited. If we discover that content is being stolen, we will consider filing a formal DMCA notice.