Bipe Flyer

I've just started building a Zoomerang, designed by Keith Laumer. It's a FF pendulum trim job for an .049 to .099. I'm scaling it up to use with a brushless that has about the power of a .25. Are you Smallsters interested in a build thread, or should I do it in the electrics forum?

skaliwag

My Feedback: (1)

I will "Tollerate" it.

gcedillo

Bipe please make the thread here, that model simply looks great.
Evaristo

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Yes. Build Thread.

Anyone know the significance behind Laumer's numbering? Were they arbitrary or did they have a connection with his writings?

supagloo

Bipe Flyer.,
I finished reading page 19. Can you upload page 41 as well?

D Bronk

Go for it Andrew .Maybe you`ll get guy`s intrested in doing a 1/2A RC..

Bipe Flyer

LOL, I would if I could. The magazine was very old with several pages missing and looked like it had gone a few rounds with a mouse. I was only able to rescue the plan and first page of the article.

DICKEYBIRD

I'm thinking the numbers mean the order he built them in. The Twin Lizzie had the number 58 which I think was later than the Zoomerang.

Cool project Andrew! Please do the build thread here.

Bipe Flyer

The article described 2 wing options - one for FF and one for CL. The CL wing has no dihedral and is slightly shorter, so I think it will be better suited to ailerons. I don't know if I have an inability to follow plans, or I just can't resist the urge to do things my own way, but I'm going to make a few changes to make this plane fairly aerobatic without losing its [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer]"whimsical charm"[/link]. The plan shows a flat bottomed wing but, like I did with the Drake II, I'm going with a symmetrical airfoil. In this case I chose an NACA 0013.


The wing is going to be - yes, you guessed it - sheeted foam. The panel is 36" X 7.5"; sheeted with 1/32" balsa and a 1/4" TE, it weighs just a little over 5oz.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Looking good so far. What kind of foam cutting setup do you have?

DICKEYBIRD, I was hoping there was some cryptic, sci-fi significance to the numbers. Laumer seemed like he was an intriguing character.

Bipe Flyer

I have a CNC foam cutter that I built from info at http://www.8linx.com/cnc/ .

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

That's really cool, BF. That site has a link to a place that sells driver board kits. It looks like most of the expense is in the stepped motors and the board.

Andrew

Andrew --

Guess I'm showing my ignorance here, but why are your vertical rails so tall?

Bipe Flyer

rainedave,
Yes, but the steppers can be found for $10 at allelectronics.com

Andrew,
Because I'm using ball bearing drawer slides, the rails need to be twice as long as the slide itself. The posts also just happened to be that tall. For wings you only really need a few inches of vertical travel. Mine has 16" of vertical travel so that I could cut several cores at once, or other shapes like a fuselage. If you take a look at the link above and click on other machines, you'll see a few different designs. Some have the Y-axis steppers mounted on the bottom with shorter posts and allow the slides to extend past the post. I opted to put the steppers on the top so that the bottom of the cutting range would be lower and I'd need a shorter table on which to set the foam.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Bipe, I'm guessing you don't really need much processing power to print a file to the cutter, so wouldn't an old computer work fine, as long as it will run XP or whatever you use?

Bipe Flyer

Just about any old computer will work. I'm running an Athlon 650 with Windows 98 on my foam cutter right now. I used to run it on an old Pentium 200MMX with no problems - until the MB died.

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Bipe,
Your cutter is very nice! I don't know if I could put one of those together.
"Whimsical charm"? You must have read my addition to Laumers bio in Wikipedia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer
I thought it was a good description of his work. I have every single plan he published.
His plan for the "Buttons" is on my site now:
[link=http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/buttons.pdf]Buttons[/link]
Dave

Bipe Flyer

Dave,

So that was you... I can't think of a better way to describe Mr. Laumer's designs. I edited my above post to link to his Wikipedia bio page.

I think I downloaded the Buttons plan the day you posted it. You have all his plans? We'll have to talk. Do you have his book "How to Design and Build Model Aircraft"?

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Bipe,
Yes, got his book too. It seems to have become a trifle expensive:
[link=http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=3017602&wauth=laumer&ptit=How%20to%20Design%20%26%20Build%20Flying%20Mo dels&pauth=Laumer%2C%20Keith&pisbn=&pqty=2&pqtynew=0&pbest=44%2E82&matches=2&qsort=r&cm_re=works*listing*title]Alibris listings for Laumer book[/link]
I think I paid $10 for mine on Abe Books a few years back, I discovered it at my local library.
AFAIK, I have a copy of every magazine in which he published a design, including Aero Modeler (UK).
Dave
Some cheaper on Abe Books:
[link=http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&y=0&tn=how+to+design+and+build+flying+models&x=0]Abe Books listing[/link]

Bipe Flyer

My wife bought me the book and several of Laumer's novels last year for Christmas. Mine's not in the best condition - it was a withdrawn from a junior high school library.

I have the magazines with the Switcheroo and the Little Red Twin. I'd like a listing of the magazines that his plans were published in, so I can create a shopping list.

Bipe Flyer

I've been trying to decide which style of landing gear to go with. I really prefer a taildragger, but the trike gear seems to suit the model. If I do go with a trike then I'll remove the forward rake of the nose gear because I think it might cause steering problems.

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Bipe.
My copy is an ex-school book too, but in very good shape.
I vote for the tri-gear version myself!
Dave
A Laumer list? Here is a start:
Curvette, Dec 1959 Flying MOdels
Little Red Twin Oct 1962 MAN
Switcheroo Feb 1962 FM
Lulla Bi April 1961 FM
DH Moth (Scale) August 1963 FM
Paul Denson did an RC Zoomerang in FM back in June 1990
Plan #CF829
http://www.carstens-publications.com..._directory.php

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Bipe, you're right, the tail dragger doesn't work. The pendulum mechanism pretty much dictated the Laumer set the model up with the fuse level for takeoff, thus a trike gear setup. I also think it's clear - to my eye anyway - that he designed the model around that orientation; things like the forward cockpit, for example. The trike grear is too integral to the overall function and character of the design to change, even if you're not using the pendulum.

Bipe Flyer

Fuselage sides with the vertical sticks for the formers. I like to do both fuselage sides with 1 stick and then separate them.

Bipe Flyer

I started framing up the fuse and mounting the wing.