Eye catching construction!

A post with a large dash of support for all the i/c connoisseurs out there…

I found this radial engine and friend at the flying field the other day, and I thought how attractive they both looked. A very symmetrical outline and an all round excellent general demeanour from one… … and the A4 ain’t half bad, either…

I don’t really mean that, I must quickly say, and the car just happened to be there anyway; my most sincere apologies to the charming young lady, I feel I may just be acting distinctly like a bit of a MCP here… Actually she is indeed a very capable pilot in her own right now, and can often be seen poling her dad’s Ryan around the sky with aplomb! Plus any other models, too, she takes them all in her stride.

The engine is an Evolution E777, a 7 cylinder, 77cc lump. It’s rated at about three and a half kilowatt, so it’s maybe not the most powerful of beasts. But the noise should be quite distinctive… It’s destined to lug a Zeroli Stearman PT 17 Kadet all around the place, eventually in the hands of this budding lady aerobat. She chose the plane, dad does the rest; and it will ultimately belong to her.

I’m sure that the eagle eyed will already have noticed, but in fact I didn’t until later, that one push rod on the bottom cylinder is adrift. This is because I let the weight depress the valve, standing it on the box, thus allowing the push rod to swing out. Not a problem, but it’s probably best to try and avoid this, there is a short pushrod on the cam follower which can fall out and get lost!

This is a little miscellaneous picture I just scanned in of a full sized Stearman Kadet. It looks as though it might be at an airshow somewhere. The sight of all those rocker boxes was the inspiration; there is an exhaust collector ring for the Evo, and with a cowl and stubby pipe it should really look the part… It might just get fitted, but it depends on the all up weight. The radial is about a lb heavier than the recommended petrol engine.

The Ryan is towed along by a Laser 150, this zooms the model straight off the ground at full throttle, the acceleration is instant, although somehow the engine doesn’t seem to quite give the impression it’s that good. Maybe it’s a trifle deceptive, it’s perhaps all related to the engine noise, the note may be a little bit soft, it has a short exhaust extension to the underside. It will also fly nice and slow, with just a trickle of speed on it’s as steady as a rock.

And finally, just to prove that I’m fairly evenly balanced, well, most of the time anyway, an odd random shot of a couple of EDF’s which I called The Lightning Hunter; that sounds a bit banal now. The Lockheed F35 Lighting might be a model to apply a little power upgrade to, if that is possible, but it’s quite small and if it was really trucking on apiece it might require a spot of concentration. The Hawker Hunter is a brilliant model, in the hands of it’s owner/pilot it’s really smooth and steady, it moves at the right sort of speed, fairly fast but not overly so, and it even has a faint jet like whistle. This one has done quite a lot of flying; it came from Overlander, and is no longer in production, I believe. Which is a bit of a shame because it fly’s so nicely, plus it’s just about the right size for a foam chuck up model. The significance of the photo is that the pilot’s father was a RAF jet pilot in this era, and he generally flew a Vampire; so naturally the pilot also has a foamy Vampire too, which is likewise a brilliant flier. Plus it’s a model of his father’s plane…

The Stearman is already partly built, and now with a bit of luck there may be some more construction pictures later on. Also if we can get organised on a camcorder we might have some flying videos next year, possibly as early as the Spring, but there’s no building deadline. But there is also a Tiger in the same menagerie which we thought might be ideal to get some practise on…….

PB

Very nice and impressive......thanks Peter.

Greetings

Joe.

Beautiful models and very impressive. The hunter is still made but is only availiable at HK