The plans and the MAN cover compared again with more accuracy and sureness:

The RCM&E plan is rather small so both drawing and measuring accuracy is not that good but not bad either. The figures were rounded (NRN) and compared to the MAN plan. The latter should be a downsized version of the kit plan so must have been rather big and accurate, though still not perfect, as we already know. The rib spacing is not precisely 3", but the distance is always related to the wing centerline (as professional draftsmen do) and not to the next rib. Only the slight squeeze to the wingtip might be a flaw.

Except that, the wing is the same in both plans!

The fuselage center section is the same as well, including the 3.25" width. Both plans have the same problem with the wing section in the side view. Must be a flaw copied from one plan to the other, but it doesn't matter, anyway.

The front fuselage is slightly elongated, deliberately I mean, in the MAN plan. After all it is nearly a year younger and they had some "enhancements". The distance between the two bulkheads seems to be 0.5" bigger and there seems to be a bigger tank. The fuselage tip is 0.25" longer to allow for a Veco .45, which is a bit longer than the K&B .45 in the RCM&E plan. Even a spinner is drawn.

The rear fuselage, that is the tail moment arm, is deliberately elongated as well. I tried two dimensions, the distance between the wing trailing edge former and the horizontal stabilizer leading edge tip, and the distance between wing trailing edge and elevator hinge line. They are 16.75"/17.5" and 23.5"/24.5" in the RCM&E plan and the MAN plan, respectively. Difference is 0.75" and 1", but this is still consistent. You may see that the MAN plan (this copy) is distorted, and the difference should be rather 1". So the tail moment arm was elongated by 1"!

From the plans, the 12" scale is now known to run from wing leading edge to rear wing dowel. If this is assumed for the MAN cover picture, the distance from wing trailing edge to rear fuselage tip may be 27", as measured on the real model. That is, if it's corrected for an 8 degrees angle to the other lines, as it actually measures 26.6". There's a perspective problem with this picture. Now the two dimensions on top of fuselage get 1" shorter. Could be correct, but I don't know. Alas, that's the limited accuracy of measurement in such small pictures. After all I'm essentially counting pixels here.

Now it seems that the front fuselage was not elongated compared to the MAN plan, but the tail moment arm seems to be elongated by 1". The latter matches the other picture measurement so should be not entirely unlikely. The measured distance (27" ) is 1.5" more than in the MAN plan, but that may be even possible e.g. if the fin/rudder is raked differently. Of course, the picture measurements are less precise than the plan measurements, but 1" or even 2" is too much to be completely wrong. So the real model has a longer tail moment arm than even the MAN plan.

The two pictures with both existing fuselages on top of each other are corrected (re-calibrated) as well using the new 12" scale obtained from the plans calibration. The front fuselage dimensions of the upper fuse seem to match the MAN plan quite well, while the tail seems about 1" longer. At least the dimensions are the same as in the MAN cover picture. The lower (T2) fuse seems again at least 1" longer.

Fortunately, the real model still exists and can be measured for the ultimate check. It's merely a matter of time. []

Now please compare these plan measurements to the Myers plan and the kit plan!

The "Japan Taurus 2" shown here for comparison. Rear fuselage seems to be standard Top Flite, only canopy and front fuse are a bit different. The RCM&E article must mean that by sweeping the wing and setting the c/g back by 2" the tail cone is effectively shortened by the same amount. See youself.

The "Flop", on the other hand, is a modified Orion with a 1" longer nose and a 2.5" shorter tail. The tail moment arm was measured from wing trailing edge former to elevator hinge line (a "mean" hinge line for the "Flop" ). The The RCM&E Taurus has 23.5" and MAN Taurus 24.5", which is even 3"/4" more than the MAN Orion and 5.5"/6.5" more than the "Flop". (The differences are exaggerated by perspective.)