Originally Posted by jjscott

I'm just an average sport builder without the skills to do a great scale model. I did start a Concept Fleet biplane some time ago with the intention of using scale flying wires. After a lot of looking on the various forums including RCScalebuilder it seemed there were only two options: The first was to use R/C available hardware and have it come out looking like R/C hardware was used. The advantage was easier field setup. The second was to build it as scale as possible so it looked like a scale airplane. The disadvantage was it has to be assembled like a real airplane.

I thought the only way to quicken the assembly was to hide the connections somewhere out of sight within the structure. The plan on the Fleet was to use a large (maybe 3") turnbuckle within the fuselage at lower wing level to pull the preassembled flying wires tight. The exterior visible rigging would be preset and to scale. The fuselage bracket would slide inward as the big turnbuckle was tightened. An over center "turnbuckle" as used on sailboat rigging would serve the same purpose.

While it sounded good to me, I never worked it out. I ended up screwing only sorta-scale brackets to the fuse and will have to tighten the turnbuckles and safety wire before flying. The Fleet used streamlined wire; mine rigging looks more like WWI; not even close to scale.

Proctor's Antic biplane has a good, fast assembly system. The left and right wing bays are fully assembled with struts and wires set to length. The bottom wing plugs in, then the top wing is kind of stretched up against the wire tension and plugged in. Nylon fishing line connects the halves. The wires are drum tight, and there is no messing with turnbuckle length. While the rigging itself approximates scale (on a non-scale plane) the visible nylon lines aren't. I think the Mick Reeves biplanes use a similar assembled bay system. I don't know whether turnbuckle adjustment is necessary with his method.

I also built Proctor's Monoplane. It's more of a pain to assemble than the biplane was. The monoplane wires are preset to length; I used turnbuckles on all wires, Proctor uses only a couple of turnbuckles. All wires are permanently attached at the wing end. Each wing half is plugged in and the bottom wire ends are slid over the lower king post. The ends of the top wires then must be pulled tight and fastened to the upper king post using nylon fishing line. There's a bit of pulling and the wings are flopping about while the pulling takes place. It works in the end though.

It seems modelers have been struggling with this forever. It will probably take some 14 year old kid with a 3D printer to fabricate some invisible miracle bracket that does the job.

Jim