It’s been a couple decades since my last scratch build so I decided to start an SBU-1. I’ts a beautiful airplane imo and it’s one that sees undeserved modeling neglect. The pic is the one I’m attempting to replicate. It’s BurAer #9759 of VS-41 stationed onboard USS Ranger (CV-4) during the late 1930’s. Aside from the Lukgraph resin model, I’ve not seen any other example, RC or otherwise, of this interwar carrier based aircraft. It will be museum scale (80 inch wing span) and I have targeted the weight for 16 pounds or less. At 16 pounds the wing volume loading (WVL) is 7.9, which will result in an easy flying scale model. And, as always, less weight is better. Other than a Guillows SE-5 kit I’ve not built a biplane let alone one from scratch. It’s proving to be quite a challenge. I just hope to live long enough to finish it. Yes, I’m that old.

An SBU-1 rubber powered model plan by FSI is available on OZ as well as a three view available on the Vought website. The 3 view from Vought is not to scale but does give critical dimensions, which made scaling to 1/5 straightforward. The FSI plan contains several design inconsistencies but it does provide valuable info on details peculiar to the SBU-1. Nick Ziroli offers a 1/8 scale plan by Dick Katz but I’m too cheap the shell out $30 for it.

The fuse frame is already built along with the landing gear, tail wheel gear, empennage and cabane. I’ll be posting more pics and progress detail as time permits. Thanks for stopping by.