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Have you heard of the GODFATHER Alan
Hulme, you know the type who makes an offer that you can’t
refuse. I.e. "we need an article for the
magazine", you know it makes sense not to argue.
Alan says “here is a list of your designs pick one and write
about it okay!” (Just joking Alan.)
Well after that what can you say but get
on with it. The design that I have chosen to briefly
describe is the F-16 FALCON one of the first generation of
‘sexy’ looking jet aircraft, (apart from the Hawker
Hunter) in my opinion. My good buddy Ron Collins had
a go at this aircraft a number of years ago with not a great
deal of success.
I got to thinking, Ron it’s not working
because it has not got a HAWK wing on it! (dig).
Meantime having taken up a course in
computer aided design (CAD), makes a change from using the
computer as a flight simulator during the winter, and as one
of the clever lads in our club having produced a program for
wing sections I could produce a Hawk wing for the F-16 but not
as you know it Ron. i.e. - reshape an E374 to fit F-16
plan form, a thin delta, great things these computer programs
that allow you to change the camber and percentage ratios.
After having a great
success with my Bolton Paul P-111A, a 1950’s experimental
delta, which had an E182 at 6% for the root and E374 at the
tip, this flies like it’s on rails. The main problem fitting
that section is, the F-16 wing is so thin and has too much
reflex, and would look out of scale, so back to the computer
program the resulting outcome was a thin flat bottom section
which seems to work not too bad in wind speeds from 12 mph.
upwards.
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Andy
Conway with his own design Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting
Falcon |
As this article is being written during
the construction of my second F-16 which is more to scale than
the one in photographs and, hopefully, ready for the first PSS
event of 1998, the Hole of Horcum. The first model being
written off in a mid-air with Martin Whitelaw’s Alpha jet
sometime last year so this gave me the chance to alter some of
the construction with a better hatch arrangement, which takes
care of access to the servos, Rx, & NiCad (Thanks
Martin I didn‘t like the colour anyway).
At this stage it was decided to make the
model one piece, as the span was just 30” and of all balsa
construction, as can be seen in the sketch. I will not go into
a lot of detail regarding construction, so back to basics, as
the F-16 is all balsa, mainly from 1/16, 3/32 and 1/8”
sheet. You can see in the sketch the model is built in
three sections wing/rear fuz, front & bottom the layout is
self explanatory.
I know a lot will say look at all the
curves, don’t panic the way to tackle that problem is to
pre-curve the balsa, i.e. - take a tube (not the
underground) approx. 2”-3” dia. now cut 4” x 3/32”
sheet by required length soak balsa and wrap around tube hold
in place with tape or elastic bands when dry you now have a
curved skin to work with. Starting top centre line using
PVA, glue and as you come down the former and the curve starts
to go in the opposite direction just dampen the top surface to
assist whilst pinning into place as you progress the length of
the fuselage.
Flap or not to flap,
well there is plenty of room for three standard servos line
abreast this would also let me try out coupled flaperons and
elevator, via my FF7 transmitter (great when you remember
how to work it, something to do with mad cows---) the
theory is to couple up flaperons with pitch control for
tighter loops without dropping off the top - we shall see!
The first flight was a real non event as
every thing was bang on - perfect loops, rolls at the drop of
a hat even that to (square loops) the only thing that
put me off was the colour scheme that I had chosen looked
great on the full size in the book maybe it was the fuselage
being stretched that made it look slimmer.
So why don’t you come and join the Top
Guns build an F-16 FALCON.
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