OK, here's one for all of you vintage/classic experts! I hope that someone can confirm my thoughts and findings.

I recently took delivery of a NIB Top Flite Orion kit. Been looking for a while and the right deal finally came along. Now, with this kit came a surprise, a set of sheeted wing and stab cores. I don't think that this was something that an individual modeler cooked up. Rather, I believe that the parts were from a small company named 5 Star that was based somewhere around Orlando, FL. Here's why. The cores are very nicely sheeted and in excellent condition. They were packed in boxes that had a postmark of Oct 1966. I can't make out the complete date as there's a black scribble on it. Next, the parts were very carefully packed/wrapped and you could tell that they haven't been disturbed for many, many years. They were packed with a lot of newspapers and they are also from the Orlando area and dated 9/11/1966. Included are strip ailerons, balsa wing tip blocks, balsa wing joiners, bushed torque rods and heavy cloth (period correct for the mid 60's) for reinforcing the center section. There is also a small instruction sheet that was typed on what appears to be rice paper. The stab is a one-piece affair with elevator blanks, reinforcment cloth and a music wire joiner that needs to be bent to shape.

Some observations: First the stab. When laid on the Orion kit plan, it's a perfect match for span and chord. The tips are semi-shaped, and are a little larger than necessary for final shaping. The airfoil isn't quite a diamond shape, but the high point of the airfoil does match the diamond stab high point. The elevator blanks are a perfect match and just need to be tapered.

The wing: I compared the wing panels against the kit plans, and they are also a perfect match spanwise and chord wise. The airfoil is also a perfect match when compared to the root and tip ribs. There's also 2 spars imbedded in the foam near the trailing edge from the root to the tip. The balsa sheeting wraps around the leading edge, and is very nicely done. There is also a large cutout in the center section for the aileron servo. So far, so good. Now, these cores came with strip ailerons and we know that the Orion has barn door ailerons. The landing gear blocks are already in the cores and sheeted over. The gear blocks however are placed too far back in the wing for a tail dragger (the Orion's original configuration). This leads me to believe that ths wing was marketed as an updated version for a tri-geared Orion as outlined in the old Grig Leaks magazine. Any thoughts on this guys? See pics below!

My game plan for this Orion is to build it stock (someday ), but include a nose gear mount in the fuselage. This way I could easily use the modified wing and change the model from a tail dragger to the tri-gear configuration without having to build another model. I think it would be very interesting to see how the model flies with just a different wing. For now though, I'd just like to find out more info about the company that made these cores. I hope someone can shed some light on this!

RFJ: Any chance you could look through your magazine stash and perhaps find an ad for 5 Star? TIA!

FB