The N.A. FJ-4B “Fury”

by Terry Lidstone – Autumn 1998

Designer Techniques No. 14

As many readers will know Terry won the PSSA Southern Area Trophy earlier this year with his FJ-4B Fury.  Prior to retirement Terry was a pilot with Malaysian Airlines flying the Boeing 737-400.  He tells me that the full size 737 also glides well and in fact top of descent is generally 120 miles from destination, all done at idle power!  I now leave him to describe his design and building technique.

The Choice

One of the joys of PSS for me is selecting the subject aircraft and this year was no exception.   My choice of a 50’s jet was perhaps inevitable since from a very early age I had been fascinated by KK flying scale and had built the whole range as fast as my paper round income allowed.

One of my favourites then was the Sabre and I stumbled upon it again whilst looking for inspiration.  It has however, been done to death as a model, there are many plans available now so I looked more closely at its cousin the Fury which, although having a larger and deeper fuselage, has a bigger wing, perfect for light wind days. Thus the decision was made.

The Inspiration

As an ATC cadet I often helped out as general dogsbody at local flying shows and one of the delights was a visit to the model display tent.  The build standard of the scale entries was breathtaking and it enthused me such that I promised myself that one day I would try to build equally as well.

It shaped my thinking and even now the example set by those modellers inspires me, so much so that the first task I set myself always is to acquire plenty of scale information.   The Aviation Model Shop at West Drayton is first class as is Midlands Counties Publications in Hinkley, Leicester.  Between them they provided a very complete scale book and a 1/72 scale plastic kit of the Fury from which my local printing shop produced 1/9th scale drawings.

The Build

The Fuselage

Now, I don’t like planking it has to be said but it has its advantages over time consuming mould making/clouds of dust and pools of molten foam/solvent mix.  So I have standardised on this method now.  During the early stages I take a large building board and all the raw materials to the living room where the tedium of white gluing and pinning is alleviated by being able to have a social contact with my family.  I think they quite like to see me out of the workshop as well for the few weeks it takes to complete the relatively mess-free process.

The Fury was built in two identical halves.  1 /4″ by 1 /8″ spruce strip formed a crutch running the complete length of the fuselage and a 1 /8″ sheet balsa keel beam was inset to support the area that later was re­moved to form the wing cutout.  3/16″ balsa formers cut to the accurate fuselage section were attached and planking commenced using 3/32″ balsa strip.  When each half had been removed from the plan I reinforced the innards from the nose to behind the wing cutout with glass fibre tissue/epoxy resin as much as my landings dictated!  They were then joined using white glue, taken to the garden and rubbed.

The monocoque fuselage was complete and it weighed hardly anything.  I was now able to delight in removing sections for the cockpit, the tailplane seat and wing cutout using paper templates to get the shape, angles and size correct.

I had set myself a challenge.  Inboard ailerons (fitted to the original to allow the outer wing panels to fold), thin flying surfaces using scale sections and washout and as much scale detail as I could reasonably add to produce an accurate scale model that looked exactly right and more over would fly right.  The Fury has convinced me that I need not compromise scale dimensions to be able to enjoy both building and flying Power Scale Soarers.

As ever, life is different strokes for different folks and I’m just pleased that I get so much satisfaction from a hobby.  Equally, I enjoy seeing others doing it their way just as much, as long as we are all having fun!

Model Spec

Length : 48.5″

Span : 52.5″

Wing Area : 4.33sq.ft

Wing Loading : 18.5 oz/sq.ft

Weight : 80 oz (5 lbs)