CoosBayLumber

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Pylon racer dihedral

I am trying to build a pylon racer off one sheet of two for a very old pylon racer. I got the big money sheet, but seem the notes are on the other sheet which happens to be missing. The aircraft was built in about 1962, and AMA knows about it, and has near zero information on it. There is zero information on the surviving sheet as to what was the original dihedral angle. The aircraft has about 575 S.I. on a 50 inch wingspan. Is powered by a .15 glow engine. It has strip ailerons, fixed gear, big fin but small rudder, and very sleek looking.


What dihedral angle or amount was popular back then and what should it be today?


Wm.

HighPlains

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Whose design is it? Was it designed for rudder control or aileron (oddly enough, many of the early RC models with the four basic controls used rudder for steering)? High wing or low wing?

CoosBayLumber

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It is a DeBolt design. Had limited sucess just before the Goodyear era began. Low wing too. Not a lot on the plan here, for know they made up a better one, in ink, perhaps a month later. It was en route to be kitted, but change in rules stopped the need. Has a NACA 65A012 airfoil.

Wm.

HighPlains

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I have the plans to a deBolt Cosmic Wind, drawn in 1960. It has 650 squares with a 57" span for a .15 to .25 sized engine. Each wing panel has 10 degrees of dihedral for a total of 20 degrees. Rather excessive by todays standards, but for 8 channel reeds, might be about right.

CoosBayLumber

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High.....


I have the original for what may have been the plans included into every kit of the Cosmic Wind back then. Never directly talked to Hal about them. But he did several duplicates to designs, competing with his own firm by such. The Cosmic has some things in common with the Continental.

It may have been sold as an aerobatic type, but Hal did not use it in his competition era. He used the Playboy, the Viscount, Interceptor, etc.

Wm.

HighPlains

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I agree that the Cosmic Wind was most likely a sport design. I know he raced biplanes in the late 50's, and developed a few designs for the Formula One event as well as Formula Two in the mid to late 60's. I don't know what or if he competed in a pylon event in the early 60's, though it sounds like the plans you have would have been one of them based on the engine size and wing area.

CoosBayLumber

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I wasn't interested in to the "other " exploits of Hal when communicating with him about 1-2 months before he died. I was interested into some of his aerobatic designs, but he kept referring to the Goodyear era, comparing his stuff against the competition's. He only did mediocre in actual competition, and perhaps he wishes it would have been different, a few solid wins would have helped. The multi-page bio at the AMA web site certainly mentions much more about his pylon racing era than when he was on the International Aerobatic team representing the USA in Switzerland.

And so, I have three styles of plans with his signature upon them. The feint vellums for racing and aerobatics, and the hard inked production plans. Best I can figure at this time is perhaps 2-3 models were made off each vellum. Whereas thousands came off the ink sets, and were then into a boxed kit. Have already built a couple A/C off his vellums, and already I hear, Naww, what you got there is a Top Flite______,. It ain't nuttin like any DMECO kit. When last contacting Hal, he was really surprized that anyone took an interest into certain of his A/C designs. A few of which went into production, a few one got a couple made, and a few really stumped him as the name did not ring any familiarity like for production designs. The Wasp was going to become his first 60 sized aerobatic design, and the Special was going to become his pylon racer. The latter name got used in a couple of designs afterwards. But was always intended for Speed.

Wm.