I have a Super Sportster 60 kit i'm building and want to add a little zing to it. I have a 1/6 pica ymf-5 radial cowl. I want to mount it on the front of the fire wall and create round formers down the box frame of the SS fuselage. I would sheet the front portion and use stringers for the rear portion with fabric covering. The horizontal stab, vertical stab and wing would remain stock, except for flaps added to the wing and maybe rounder wing tips. So the the question is....Would the plane still have the good handling qualities that Super Sportsters are known for or will it have a negative impact?

skeeter

It should look better, and handle the same.

It should be the same but the only factor I can think of is that you might get more drag off the round fuse depending on the width but it would be a great project. I have one of these kits ready to build aswell and also thought of doing this aswell if you decide to do it post some pics on here what engine are you putting in it I am going for a Profi .76 with a Merker tuned pipe. I also have a 90-120 kit I will be building this year putting a laser 1.50 V twin into it. What diameter is the cowl. I also thought of trying to get the little .20 sportser kit and making a round cowl as I have a G mark 5 cylinder radial .30 2 stroke would love to see some one do this with a sportster I think it would look great if it was proportioned right.

The cowl is about 7" in diameter. I plan on using a OS .91FX with a pitts muffler to fit in the cowl. With a shoe horn and some vasoline it should fit. I think smoke would be cool but am undecided on that at the moment.

skeeter

A 91 should make up for the drag specially an O.S 91fx what servo's are you going to use. I'm not sure if standard ones are enough you will have plenty of space inside. My extra is 60 to 90 size and comes with a 8 oz tank and am going to have to modify it cause there is no space really hate that.
Are you going to build a box section to seat the wing into and what are you going to use also what size of stringers will you use.

only real impact will be an increased wing loading. And you'll need to move some of the innards forward to get the CG to stay where it was before.

Back in 1981, I built a .60 size pattern model to satisfy an idea I had
I had been producing pattern planes (TiPo ) for a few years and had already debunked a number of "facts" about drag and wing thickness for pattern planes.
I built a box fuselage wider than it was tall which included the .60 Tigre and a full pipe setup, a canopy, faired in spinner etc..
weight was about the same as the other stuff I made which was minimum cross section etc..
Performance ?
Just fine- no adverse effects whatsoever.
Spin the clock ahead to today.
The present "top performance" pattern planes have relatively huge fuselages and small wings -they are still very light but the point being that for this type stuf all that really counts is low wing loading and high power loadings
Some of these "top performance" suckers are very high priced to boot.
(PTBarnum was right)
You can shape things to suit -and as long as yo u stay within reasonable looking ratios -you wil likely have a nice performing model.
Building and trying stuf is fun
go for it.

Thanks guys,

Those are the answers i was hoping. I was planing on using just standard servos, maybe BB MG type. I'll have a servo for each control surface on the wing, so a total of four. I am thinking one for the rudder and one for the elevator which will be mounted in the tail section. The front half of the fuse will be sheeted and the rear half stringers, probably 3/16" sq. 1/8" seems to small and 1/4" too big. As for the wing saddle i am using the original boxed fuselage formers and sides and not going to use all the big pieces that have to be carved to shape. The wing mounting will be stock SS and the round fuse built around it with formers. What size balsa do you think the formers and sheeting should be. Any other suggestions that might be helpful?

I was planning to post some pics of the mods done in the kit builders forum.

skeeter

The two things I see changing the "feel" of the plane is the increased wingloading as mentioned before and less effective side area. The benefit of this would be that the model will be less affected by cross winds. The downside is that you be able to do knife edge manuvers as easily since you are basically reducing the side area of the plane...

Hi Dick,

Do you have a photo of the airplane? Was the airplane a modified TiPo so that the height was the same and the fuse increased in width - more details please... I have always wondered about it. Certainly the deep fuselages of today are due to the ability (or need) of the airplane to generate a lot of side force with a small sideslip angle. It helps keep the coupling effects down during maneuvers.

Ben