sturmvogel

Don Srull 1/2A designs. I have built more than a couple of Don Srull's designs and am really impressed. About 10+ yrs ago I built his Taylor E-2 (~50" W.S., Medallion .049, 3 channel, silk covered, 20 oz. ). The structure is very light but very strong-it's designed to fly, not to crash. Really flew well and very realistic. If you built up airspeed it'd loop, did great spins, and would take off from grass it it was really short. Also built his WACO cabin (50 " W.S., 3 ch., 30 oz., O.S. 15) and again, it flies great. I still have it and it's at least 10 years old. A bunch of work, but very neat. This was a "blown up" recreation of an old Megow rubber plan that he redesigned structureally. Both plans are still avbl from Model Aviation. This guy is a great designer!!

DICKEYBIRD

Amen to that brother! I have admired his work for years....if memory serves he even did a FF Dornier flying boat with 6 or 8 (maybe even 12, I forget) electric motors on it!! He is definitely an artist.

Have you been admiring Chris Starleaf's work in Flying Models mag.? He's another very gifted designer. The nacelle construction shown on his tri-engined Bellanca plan is what helped me get over the "What the heck am I gonna do about nacelles" hump with my "Twin Lizzie 2" project a while back.

sturmvogel

I have to agree with you on both counts. I had the pleasure of being at Geneseo at the FAC Nationals when Don Srull flew the DO-X. It's kind of scary when someone has the ability to not only conjure up something like that but then is able to build and fly it. Chris Starleaf indeed is gifted in much the same way, as is Tyrone Parker, another FM contributor. While we're on the subject, Flying Models is my favorite magazine-they offer real articles on all the subjects that interest me! BTW, I've got a Taylor E-2 all framed up and this one will be powered by a PAW .033! It's amazing when you think about the engines, radios (the whole radio system in this airplane weighs about what the rcvr alone used to...
Bob

EASYTIGER

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He's one of the greats. I have his 42" Curtiss Wright Junior on my list of things to do this winter...

dgliderguy

And let's not forget the Don Srull Gee Bee Sportster Model D, at 36" span (RCM May 1966). Perfect for the Norvel .061R/C. I plan on doing mine in Litespan and colored tissue. Love those wheel spats!!

sturmvogel

dgliderguy- I didn't know Srull designed a Gee Bee Sportster! At 36" you're right about it being perfect for small engines. Is there any chance you could go to Kinkos (or any copier place) and copy the plan? I'd be happy to send you whatever it costs to copy and mail...
TX,
Bob

rahtware

Would it be OK if I added kudos to Fred Reese and Ken Willard? (I hope I spelled their names corectly!)

I tend to build more when the plans / planes are small and simple. I have enjoyed the S&S planes designed by both of these gents.

sturmvogel

Both those guys (Willard and Reese) had the gift of figuring exactly what was needed in the simplest construction. I still have a plan of Ken Willard's "Duranita" biplane. The name came from the fact that he used a McCoy .049 diesel for power. It as a biplane with the top wing being a gull wing and a simple bottom wing, sheet fuse. A friend of mine built one-42" wing span. At that time, ~1955, it was the biggest model I'd ever seen to fly with an .049! Things have indeed changed!

EASYTIGER

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Srull, Willard, and Resse were/are all great designers, but all very different.
Srull was scale, pretty much always. A lot of his stuff was not simple at all! Small, but not simple! Ever build a Flyline Jungmeister?
Reese was about fifty-fifty.
Willard was always sport stuff. I have a Roaring 20 with about a hundred flights on it!

dgliderguy

Srull/Reese/Willard are all valued contributors to my plans stack, but for QUALITY scale S.M.A.L.L. stuff, I refer you to the prodigious works of Hurst Bowers. I put Hurst with Phillip Kent in the Small Scale Hall of Fame.

EASYTIGER

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Yup. Bowers could be #1 in my book.

av8rsodt

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I have heard a lot about Hurst Bowers... can you still get his plans? If so where? I am curious what scale aircraft he has modelled.

I have seen and flown many of Don Srull's 1/2A designs: Sparrowhawk, E2 Cub, and Cessna C-37. All 3-channel w/ TD .049-.051.

Always interested in new plans! I am hoping to get my hands on the Flyline Megowcoupe and do Al Lidberg's Dormoy Bathtub (designed for C02 from MAN plans).

1/2A Forever!
Av8rsodt

BMatthews

All these names are the stuff I grew up with. They are all winners in their own rights and their own styles.

To add a couple lets not forget the pre radio days and add Kieth Laumer in there. His free flight sport models had character to spare. Another that pops up from time to time in my Old Timer searches is Paul Plecan. Another winner for charisma. Ah heck, there's just way too many to mention in a list like this.

When I look at some of the designs that used to be popular for sport flying (contest models have always been form and function first so don't really fit into this topic) and then look at the "instant fly" boxes with wings we seem to center on these days I just can't help but feel that modeling has lost something by not being more familiar with the older designs. Now and then a bright spark will light the world for a moment but the "damp fuel" of simplicity extinguishes it's effect pretty quickly.

And the one that got me into this thread... Don Srull is a fellow free flighter....... Need I say any more? If you don't know what I'm talking about then do a search on FAC or "flying aces club" and drool over your keyboards while looking at some sumptuous scale stick and tissue offerings.

I've been wondering what to make for a GWS Lite Stik replacement to put my motor and radio into. I figured it either had to be aerobatic like a Tiny or something or look good flying in a basically free flight style with occasional control to keep it within bounds.

This thread has convinced me. It's time to replicate a model who's picture haunts me to this day from the dawn of my time in this hobby. I'm gonna build a Twin Lizzie to lightweight electric specs. Thank you Mister Laumer wherever you are....

DICKEYBIRD

Amen brother!! My twin .049 Twin Lizzie 2 started from a seed planted in the Sherwood Jr. High school library in 1959....gazing at the M.A.N. issue with the 'Lizzie in it...reading the "flying" section over & over, memorizing every detail of the plans! Finally getting up the gumption to build mine last year was very rewarding.

The latest spark to build one started out as a yearning to build, like you, a super-light, stick & tissue version of the original for GWS L/Stik power....I even traced over some of the plan in CAD and started working on what wing area I wanted but about that time, my mod'ed TD's were doing so well that I decided to go all out and go with a look-alike 'Lizz with 2 .049's.

As to where is Keith....he's out in space somewhere living out the masterful stories he told in his plethora of science fiction novels!

Here's the pic that....

DICKEYBIRD

spawned this:

EASYTIGER

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Here's to Keith Laumer! That Twin Lizzie is nice!

sturmvogel

Regarding Horst Bowers (actually, Col. Horst Bowers)-he and Don Srull coauthored at least some of the projects that were published. The ones I remember are (1) a Grumman F4F Wildcat (2) I think Bowers was the designer of the Flyline biplane ( I'm probably wrong about which aiplane it was, but I thing it was either a WACO or a Grumman). The Wildcat plan is still available from Model Aviation I think as are several more that Bowers/Srull designed-if you get MA's catalog of plans you'll be surprised! I too have built the Taylor E-2, the WACO cabin and started a couple more. Excellent designers!!

Dave Campbell

Heh-you guys are making me feel reaaaally young here!

I like Fred Reese's stuff, Don Srull did some later R/C jets in FM, but you guys are forgetting the greatest 1/2A designer ever: Randy Randolph!

My .02 anyway.. Shouldn't I be making balsa-err fiberglass dust or something?

Dave

EASYTIGER

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The wildcat is a beauty. Single channel, no less! Clukey did ALL the layouts and engineering of the flyline kits, it was his company, bower designed most of the line, srull did maybe two of them. The jungmeister was one, don't remember the others. Bowers and Clukey together was the thing, though. What a combination. Gorgeous plans, suitable for framing, intense detail, light, strong, neat fittings and clever features. Sprung landing gear oleos, all that good stuff. I have built most of them over the years.
The next one I am doing will be a repeat, either a Stearman or an Inland Sport.
Srull drew a very, very neat semiscale Curtiss Wright Pusher for single channel, 02 power, 42" span. On my list of things to build. But it will get a Paw 03, not just because of the throttle, but because of my reluctance to hand carve a pusher prop for a TD 02, as required for the original! You can get a couple of different pushers that will work fine on a PAW...