Who can identify this model design and please comment as to the effacy of this aileron design.

Another view:

It is a FOTCOTA , a rarely seen aircraft at most fields.

FOrgot To Cut Out The Ailerons

The basic shape resembles a modified SIG Senior Kadet published in MAN as a "Cessna L-19" (or something like that) a few years back.
The "Junkers" style ailerons.. one way to be different.

It'a actually a full sized ultralite scaled up from a 1/2A model. Note the 2x3 fuselage construction from the choicest Home Depot culls pile and the use of the Yamaha 600 single cylinder engine from the off roader. This is a choice example of scaling up..... with one small detail missed.

To keep more in theme the engine should have been a TWO STROKE from a CR500 Honda.

Otherwise a fine effort down to the use of afterthought barn door ailerons added to the wings normally used with rudder and elevator only.

No, actually I think it's the winning entry at last year's Flugtag.

Seriously, do those ailerons actually work?

McCessna....seriously!!! Appeared in one of the modeling magazines several years ago but did not have the weird aileron extensions.

Congrats to Lightfoot as winner of the "Model?" contest. Yep, it is a slightly modified McCessna ala Kitfox hanging ailerons design. D. Nelson, yep, they sure do work, as it "turns on a dime".
For some details, the ailerons are heavy RC heli
blades donated by a fellow club member of a now extinct RC heli design with a fully symmetrical airfoil section. Two aluminum rods extend out, trailing from underside of the wing and bolted to ply ribs, respectfully. At the end of each rod is a threaded nylon, angled strut mount fitting which has been reshaped by heating to straighten it out. The front of the hardwood heli blades have an aluminum tube epoxied into a routed recessed groove maintaining the airfoil shape "D" section. Along this tube in two places, slots have been cut into the leading edge of the "aileron", wide enough to accept the the nylon fittings which have a hole that lines up with the tube center. A solid 5/32 aluminum rod is pushed from the end of the tube through it which engages the nylon fitting holes, thus allowing the aileron to pivot off its leading edge. Really the same idea as some modelers use to hinge their elevators or rudders which then become, removable. Recognizing that because of the heavy aileron wood, it would not be good to apply such static loads to the wing servos and flutter concerns, the ailerons have been weight counterbalanced with a lead fishing sinker on a music wire extension angled down and forward from underneath the aileron. The weights are adjustable along the wire to "calibrate" the static aileron position. I think this aileron design complements the "weird" Hoerner drooping wing tips! The original design had the conventional designed ailerons built into the wing. Needless to say, the designer of the McCessna who I know wasn't entirely pleased with my "messing around" but as Burt Rutan would say, "Dare to be Different"

Seal the gap with some tape and it is just a regular aileron. Actually with my building skills the gaps on my ailerons look about the same as yours!!

Hey that is a good one about "building skills".
Why does the Kitfox design use a similar approach for ailerons or are they used as flaperons? That is what I will have to try next with the McCessna;
program them as flaperons. Do you remember where G. Curtiss put his first ailerons in relation to the bipe's wings? One half way between them, approx.

Just a sidelight with this red machine. Last summer I experienced interference with this model and was shot down over some tall trees in a thick woods ajacent to a full size airport runway. The model plunged easily 40 ft. straight down through the thick branches and made a "sickening" sound as did so. When we were able to find it after crawling through the underbrush, it was suspended by its tail vertically having caught by a branch about 5 ft. above the ground. The only damage was a 4" piece of wing leading edge punched out and a few false ribs but no damage to the spruce spars. Could not believe my good fortune!

Trying to read Glenn Curtiss's mind I would guess that he looked at the ailerons as small wings and therefore he could get force to control the roll of the airplane. He could get a good idea of the force available based on the limited data he had on wings. Half way between was probably determined by the thought to get the surface away from the other wings. The concept of a separate movable attached surface as we have with modern airplanes was still in the process of invention.

I don't know about the Kitfox. I do remember wondering about it the first time I saw it. Certainly the ailerons will work there but looking at airplanes that have to work for a living gives a big thumbs down for that design. Too much drag when it isn't being deflected.

They do make a great sound going through branches though don't they? It is a tribute to my concrete building style that not much got hurt the two times I have managed to do it. It is a good thing though as my tree climbing days are quite over and even before then I am a severe heightaphobic. If I can reach it with a stick I just beat it until the parts are small enough to come down.

I fly little yard and park fliers in the back of my house. There is a 1/2 square of open area with a ravine that makes a great sledding hill for the neighborhood kids but it is surrounded on three sides by old trees 50 ft high or so. I am trying to train the squirrels as retreivers but all they do is eat the seeds I put out for the birds and bicker. I suppose I'll have to go to the local Rent-a-Monkey when the time comes.

Some have successfully recovered their models high in the same trees I have described above by shooting an arrow with an attached, trailing nylon line over the branch restraining the model, then pulling the arrow with line attached and a weight on the opposite end such that the weight is caught on the branch. They then yanked like "H" on the rope until the model was dislodged. Saved on buying monkey food and training. A second approach that has been used is to chop the tree down particularly if it had a small diameter trunk and watch it fall on the model as it crashes to the ground. Gunshots have also been used of larger caliber, actually cutting the offending branch in two, but missing the model in repeated firings. Here a rifle scope is useful. But the best one of all was when one of our club members lost a brand new motor glider model when a brand new radio system failed and it merrily, thermally flew away. Sometime later the model owner learned that it was caught in a high tree behind a retired WW2 Navy carrier pilot's home 17 miles from our field. The model owner drove to the old warriors home and explained his ownership, upon which the old gent in his 80's promptly climbed the tree and retrieved the modeler's property. Yep, it really happened; amazing! I guess up to that point the old gent did not think the risk of climbing the tree was worth the effort.

Just read a aeronautical discussion of low speed flight and STOL performance of light planes. It seems that according to this analysis that "my" trailing aileron design above on the McCessna is ideal for positive roll sensitivity (no dead spots)and improved STOL performance, particularly when used as flaperons.
Perhaps, this explains why the Kitfox uses a similar aileron design although much longer span-wise as do several other light plane designs.
Apparently there is real control merit in "squeezing" the airflow between two airfoil surfaces or as they describe a funnel effect along the wing bottom boundary layer. Also, the proper name is the Junkers style flap after the JU52,etc. Just can't wait to try them as flaperons
I can hardly spell injineer but I almost is one, as the old joke goes!

Since the McCessna has helecopter blades for ailerons, will it hover.

HHHMMM..

Apparently there's several connections to that thing. One inboard and outboard....and up top. Is it a retractable aileron with some kind of elevon function?...

It will hover like a rabbit if you know what that means, hamothare?

Flug: no magic in this design. The pivot point line or the aileron leading edge is fixed relative to the wing by the two aluminum rod standoffs with nylon ends. So, the aileron simply pivots up and down on its leading edge. Not sure in my image above what you are seeing to make you think otherwise?

Hamothare: you may want to try this design on an electric slowflier. Don't think the extra weight would prevent hovering particulaly if you use real light gauge, electric feeder wire from the ground up to the model.

Cheers

I figured it was for doing neat stuff at a real low speed. The position of the ailerons....as far back as they are anyway.

Looking at the close up of the first image - at the midpoint between the trailing edge and the leading edge of the aileron, it looked like there was something else. Thats what I was trying to figure out. That was before anyone posted a reply. By the time I finished mine, all the answers were there. I see it clearly in the under wing picture now. It's a pushrod. It looked like (in my imagination) that there were rods at each end connected to what could have been bellcranks. This could have positioned the entire assembly for and aft....in my (imagination.)

So, whats the coolest thing this does?

The coolest thing was crashing through forty feet of tree limbs, straight down in a death dive and surviving almost intact as described above. It is just a plain old airplane that defies the logic of sealing the gap between the aileron and wing as discussed infinitum in the past. Will be programming as flaperons this coming flying season to see how it reacts. That is what the Kitfox design uses their hanging ailerons for, flaperons. Does get a lot of attention at strange flying fields as it is a strange airplane! Also, provided built in mounting slots in fuse bottom for float attachments which I hope to get to this summer, off the water for an "off the wall" model.
Keeps me from falling asleep!

That is definitely cool...cuz mine didn't make it through the trees.
See the crash section.

It's fun to experiment.

Boeing L-15 Observation circa 1946. Not only does it have hanging flaperons, but someone designed the tail feathers upside down. WHAT FUN!

Flicka5 - would you do an experiment, fly with the gap sealed with tape and without the gap sealed and report the results?

Typically the reason the gaps are sealed in very exacting aerobatic models is to stop rolling to one wing when doing a loop. Not a good thing when trying to impress a judge.

With a puddle jumper airplane at higher angles of attack and drooped ailerons with the gap shown it does become a slotted flap. The effectiveness would vary with position both fore and aft and up and down. For a given angle of attack there will be an optimum position.

Upsidedown it doesn't work quite as well.

Hi Ben: don't think there is a practical way of doing that sealed, unsealed aileron experiment as you suggest. Have attached the sketch of relative positions of wing trailing edge and suspended aileron as shown in the picture below. The aileron pivots about its leading edge so to bridge or seal the gap would require a vertical piece of tape or covering that would attach to the leading edge of the aileron. This vertical wall of fabric would then create a large flat plate drag increase
particularly if it attached to the wing trailing edge. Fairing the covering in by attaching to the wing underside farther forward of the trailing edge would create a "suction" pocket on the backside, again increasing drag as I see it. In any case with 2 ft. of snow on the ground and temperatures at 0 to 15F daily, not a good time to be flying.

I understand and agree.

In my youth I have flown while the water is freezing the puddles at the flying field. Now that I am older and wiser I am not so anxious to get outside in the cold and snow.

Ben: yep, our flying season is short outside but have been flying inside in a gymnasium which it seems is getting very popular with the small electrics. Attached is one that I just scratch built with a 280 geared motor. Have not flown it as of this time. A lot of problems keeping the wing from warping and will probably need to add more wing struts.

Back to the helicopter blade ailerons. I have seen the McCessna fly and must admit that they are very effective for that type of airplane. Turns can be extremely tight and still have full control at slow speeds. Good flying airplane.