JRF:
Thanks for the prop suggestion! I'll give it a whirl... so to speak.
I know the Y didn't race with the big boys... the point was that you modeled a RACER but say its not a racer in the ads. That's ok though... the senior sportster may have had a less tragic history if it had been used as just a sporty flyer. Just to be square with history, maybe we shouldn't blame Florence for the modifications... here's what one source has to say:
NR718Y was built for E.L Cord Corporation as a test bed for it's Lycoming division for 215 HP, Lycoming R-680 engines. It was later purchased by Art Knapp who hired designer Bob Hall to engineer installation of a Wright Whirlwind, a new windshield and landing gear fairings. The aircraft was raced in 1933 Chicago International Air Races. Florence Klingensmith flew the aircraft in the feature race, but unfortunately a large piece of fabric came off of the inboard section of the right wing, she flew off of the course for a distance, and apparently stalled the aircraft and tragically died.
There have been lots of discussions here about what is "scale speed"... and I don't want to start another. But, what is likely "scale speed" on this model has been described as "a potato with wings".
60-70mph will probably LOOK more scale than 42.5mph and seems like a good target range.
BTW, I think I see what you guys are talking about with stronger stringers. Got to move it around, now that it is much heavier than it was out of the box. I can see that you must be very careful where you pick it up. At the formers and sheeted areas are best. But, this is true for every open-stringer model I'm aware of.