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Jack Edwards gives us the details on his A320-200 Airbus, and takes us
back to school - where it all began.
This model aircraft started its life in 1990 as “An Airliner”, it
was hung up in the hall of Longridge C of E Primary School for
a week, while the children performed songs and dances from
around the world for other visiting school children and
parents. I went to one evening show, the children
performed very well, with the Captain and Stewardess making
various announcements in between items while the model
airliner turned slowly overhead with its’ navigation lights
flashing. It was a success, and I received a half bottle
of Bells from the teachers for my efforts.
Later, with some modifications I thought that it might fly! The
wings are two 36” outer panels from a Dick Edmonds
‘Algebra’ (probably E1l93), these were joined to a built
up centre panel, then the outer flaps were made into flaperons
with a servo and bowden cables. Elevators were added to
the tailplane with a servo and pushrod. I put the battery and
receiver on the top of the wing centre section and added some
ballast to bring the CG to a suitable guesstimate.
I waited for a reasonable day with a 10+ m.p.h. wind on the slope and
went there secretly on a weekday (flexi.) afternoon. I
climbed about halfway up the slope, and luckily, was on my
own. I had a quick fly with a small aileron model, just
to test that the lift would be OK, and then assembled the
airliner. I left off the ‘Blue Peter’ type engine
pods for the first go, but had them with me just in case it
worked!
To launch it, I balanced the centre of the model on the upturned side of
the Transmitter in my left hand and gave it a heave off, with
my right hand pushing the tailcone forwards! Off it
went, to my surprise and delight soaring away. Control
was adequate, and although the model was cruising quite fast,
it was easy to fly. I landed it OK and tried again with
the engine pods on, these slowed the model a bit but didn’t
seem to effect the performance, which was much better than I
expected.
The airliners AUW of 6lbs. with about 5sq.ft. of wing area gave a wing
loading of some 19ozs./sq.ft. I decided to turn it into
a semi scale A320. This meant modifying and lengthening
the fuselage, adding wing tips and making new engine
pods. The colour scheme of Air France was chosen as the
easiest to apply. Currently they have 24 A320 aircraft
in their fleet.
When finished the AUW was almost 7 l/2lbs. giving a wing loading of
about 24oz/sq.ft. Of course the A320 flew a bit faster,
but was still easy to handle.
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Jack
Edwards' Airbus A-320 finished in Air France colours. |
Launching the model on the slope is a bit awkward when done by the
pilot, but it is usually the safest bet. Other
modellers, even if told in strong words to give it a good
heave, seldom do, and it sometimes ends up worse than a
misjudged landing.
In 1996 I added a mechanism of wire, tubes and springs to the top of the
A320 fuselage above the CofG so that a smaller model could be
launched from the top in flight with a second pilot at its
controls. This was a test for another PSS project of
mine and it worked fine on several occasions.
The new project was a DFS 230 troop carrying glider with an Me-109 on
top. This was the Mistel project of the Luftwaffe of
1942, and proved successful with this 3rd. combination and
lead to the S2 Mistel of Ju-88 and FW-190 later.
Following a bad landing early last year I shortened the A320 fuselage
which reduced the AUW by a pound. I removed a 2 1/2”
section from ahead of the wings, and a 4 1/2” section behind
them reducing the length to 68”. Stick on tip fins
were added.
I repainted the now A319 in Swiss Air livery. They had just taken
delivery of their first two aircraft and currently have six in
their fleet.
After the success of my Airbus I built a Boeing E3 Sentry. It also
performed OK and looks well in the air. It’s not as
easy to fly, is cumbersome to transport and carry up the fell,
and needs the right day to fly it.
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Jack's
later model, the Boeing E-3 Sentry makes a low run. |
Lately my aim is to keep PSS models much lighter but not flimsy. I
am trying for 10-12ozs./sq.ft. with a smooth finish so that in
a good breeze the model will still penetrate at this lighter
wing loading. Also in light wind conditions with some lift
about they will do more than just a launch, once around, and
down again, even though it does give practice on landings.
There are still many different PSS models I would like to build as well
as my model birds, these also need some skill to design and
get to fly well with good control. I’m not an absolute
scale type but, I do like the model to look right in the air.
One site I fly at with a car park is called Jeffrey Hill which is only
flyable with a N-NW wind, visitors are sometimes very
interested and amazed
that the models are only gliding on the wind with no engines
at all. Last Sunday, after about 40mins. flying the
A319, quite high at times along the ridge, a visitor came to
tell me that when he first spotted the model high up he
thought it was a real plane in trouble, stooging about.
Then after some wobbles and a low pass he came over to find
out what it was all about. I was trying to take photos
of the model whilst flying a low pass, now that really does
give you a buzz!!
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