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What was it? 1970s swept wing jet kit...


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A thread about kits stirred something in the few remaining brain cells and reminded me that it's been bugging me that I can't recall the name of a model that I built many years ago. Sometime around 1976, I bought a kit for a "jet style" model with swept wings and a pusher engine - I think I used a Veco 19 but it could have been a little bigger but whatever I did use for it, it was virtually impossible to get it off a bumpy patch at Croxley Moor...and volunteers to hand launch it were understandably not forthcoming - the story of the bungee launch attempt has been told before...

 

As far as I can recall, it had foam wings.

 

I thought it was regularly advertised in the model magazines of the time but couldn't see anything like it in some old RCM&Es we have in our clubhouse when I looked a few years ago.  I used to get Radio Modeller (I think that was its name) regularly as well - not to be confused with a US magazine with a spelling mistake in its title - and Aeromodeller from time to time.

 

Can anyone put my mind at rest and help me identify it?  I bear the scars from the pusher prop to this day and I'd love to recall exactly what inflicted them!

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A bit more information might jog someone's memory Martin. Wingspan? High wing / low wing? Tri-gear? Tail:- standard, twin or v-tail for instance. Was it single channel if it was produced in the mid seventies? All my old RM mags only have the plans and articles archived now and my old Aeromodeller mags were chucked, sadly.

This model is from 1976 but unlikely to be the one you are thinking of. 

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Thanks Piers - no not that one.  It was advertised  as a kit in one of the magazines on a regular basis - there must have been a picture or drawing to attract me to it and I have a vague recollection that it was a 2" ish square advert towards the back of a magazine each month - it wasn't a plan though.  All I can assume is that the .19 would have been on the smaller end of the power range and it would have been likely to have been somewhere in the 40" span range.

 

I don't recall much other than it had a trike undercarriage (I can be definite on this one as a tail dragging pusher would have been interesting!) and that it had a pointy nose and conventional tail. It was covered in reddish maroon Solarfilm and prone to giving a nasty bite while tuning the engine - but that's of no help at all!  It would have been mid or low winged and styled on a swept wing jet. Mine was the only example I saw so I've no idea if it was popular.

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1 hour ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

I don't suppose anyone out there has a collection of mid-seventies Radio Modeller magazines?

Martin, I do have a decent run of old RMs, but unfortunately they are in my lock up down in England and nine years later I still haven't brought them up here. I think I might have a few in the workshop, so will have a look this afternoon.

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I have a fairly extensive collection of RCME, RCM USA, and RM, but very few 1970's Radio Modeller.

The only RM from 70's I could find was RM March 1975 but that had nothing you described - actually very few adverts.  Checking through my more numerous RCME from 1970's revealed nothing.

I first thought you described the Ken Stokes Mirus but that had engine in the proper place -at the front.  Everybody seeks the plan for the Mirus but nobody has one!

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I often wondered what Bond Bug drivers said when they tipped them up.......

 

My memory has some image of an advert which used only a line drawing of a delta model when every other kit producer had a photo of some sort.  But that would be an RCME from early 80's I reckon.

 

The only delta advert I found so far that could be a pusher is  the Fireflash Super Delta from Skyleader - it's not a clear photo but it is probably a pusher.  Fibreglass fuselage  47 inch span.

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Whilst searching for the culprit that mutilated Martin,  I came across an article from Alex Weiss about his plan for an F15  Eagle pusher - he also did a number of plans for pusher deltas that were published but not kits as far as I recall.   MIG25   Mig 25 was another.   I seem to think he said his pushers were insprired by Bo Garstedt who had a Saab pusher plan published in RCME or RM.   Could it be any of those?   If so I have the articles somewhere.

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53 minutes ago, kc said:

I often wondered what Bond Bug drivers said when they tipped them up.......

 

My memory has some image of an advert which used only a line drawing of a delta model when every other kit producer had a photo of some sort.  But that would be an RCME from early 80's I reckon.

 

The only delta advert I found so far that could be a pusher is  the Fireflash Super Delta from Skyleader - it's not a clear photo but it is probably a pusher.  Fibreglass fuselage  47 inch span.

 

I'm sure it was a swept wing rather than a delta (can't recall how much sweepback though) and it had balsa/ply fuselage construction.

 

As for inverted Bond Bugs, I had a brake failure leaving Henry J Nicholl's Potters Bar model shop and flipped it while trying to negotiate a tight bend - the handbrake being as much use as throwing a model boat anchor out of the back...  I was happily contemplating the best way to release the seatbelt without banging my head when I heard a shout of "Get out, get out" and visualising great gouts of orange flame, I was through the flip up side screen before you could say Captain Leefe Robinson...to find that the passer by had just seen a few drops of petrol dripping from the fuel cap.  Certainly, opening the roof would not have been practical unless the driver was Superman...

 

After rolling it back onto its wheels and giving it a few minutes for the oil to find its way back into the sump, I drove it home with a somewhat flattened canopy.

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6 minutes ago, John Lee said:

I've had a flick through a sample of my collection of Radio Modellers of the 70's & this is the only thing I spotted that approaches the description, from May 1977;

 

Thanks John - no, nothing like that I'm afraid.  More like the general layout of a BAe Hawk or a Viperjet but not a scale model as such.

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German 3 wheelers were better with the single wheel at the back!   Like the Heinkel bubble car etc.

 

There are copies of most of the 1970's Radio Modeller on sale if you want to obtain a copy or two to find that design.   But maybe you would be better off not knowing and not being able to build one again and keeping just memories and all your fingers!

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It's not a model that I have any real desire to build again - it just bugs me that I can't find anything about it or remember it's name/maker.  Pushers (along with ducted fans) are the only models that I'd prefer to electrify as adjusting the needle on a pusher is just so hazardous.

 

Of course Morgan were building 3 wheelers the sensible way round donkey's years before the bubble car era but I did come across a supercharged AF Spider for sale when I was looking for model transport on my motorbike licence (a wooden monocoque with a mini front end for the majority of people who'll never have heard of it) - 12 built and possibly the oddest looking car...ever!  I believe it may have been the prototype and the only supercharged example.  I was sorely tempted until I remembered why I was looking for a 3 wheeler - there was rudimentary weather protection and little or no model storage space and I had doubts about it being under 8 cwt.

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