Did the original Eyeball planes have retracts? I know the J&J Eyeball only came with fixed gear. Anyone think retracts would be an improvement for this plane?

RB51,

As you can see from the plan the original Eyeball did not use retracts although wheel pants are suggested.

Jim Martin flew an Eyeball for a while and developed the Banshee from it which certainly used retracts.

Retracts generally improve the appearance of any aerobatic model and the Eyeball would be no exception. However, due to the mid wing design the legs would be rather long.

Ray

Thank you very much for your response. Was this a Model Airplane News plan?

The plans in the post above are not plans for the original Eyeball that Art Schroeder
flew nor the plans for the J&J kitted version. These are plans sold by a magazine service.
The original Schroeder Eyeball was a taildragger with retracts and the J&J kit had a balsa
built up wing, not foam cored, and tri-cycle gear. The short kit sold by Eureka aircraft is
the later Mark IV version which is stretched 2 inches. Art Schroeder is a member of RCU
and might answer your questions if you e-mail him.

tommy s

The scan in my post is from the August 1969 edition of MAN and it is described as an Eyeball 2.

I'm not up to speed on the various developments of the Eyeball but, as tommy s says, Art is still around and is very responsive to e mail inquiries if you want the full Eyeball story. The best way to contact him would be through the Vintage Radio Control Society who have a web site and a news group.

Ray

http://www.vintagercsociety.org/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VRCS/

Ray-
The magazine article you referenced was authored by the designer , Art Schroeder - and the plans therein reflected his thinking at that moment in development of the Eyeball.
It should be noted, as you point out , that the ORIGINAL design DID NOT come into being utilizing a built up wing.
Despite comments to the contrary - I have J&J's drawings for the kitted version--------IT WAS A FOAM CORED WING----- as per Schroeder's published version.
The 'stretched' version of this design was the result of Schroeder's effort to gain a more stable platform (in pitch)and WAS constructed around a built up wing in conjunction with an additional 2.5" in the fuselage.
Eureka's version represents the final iteration of this design --with built up wing.

I never saw Art Schroeders original Eyeball but I am 60 years old and
was flying pattern when J&J released the Eyeball kit and I can tell you
without a doubt it was a built up wing....I built two of them and still have
some polaroid shots of the last one. The picture on the Eureka web site is
the original picture of the original J&J Eyeball from the original kit plans
and pictures....tricycle gear and a built up wing. Both of mine were covered
in good old silk and painted with Aero Gloss dope. I have the same plans
represented on this post which I ordered from a magazine plan service which
show a foam wing version. As far as I know J&J never kitted a foam wing
version of the Eyeball nor a stretched version. There were 3 or 4 versions
but the J&J kits were the short fuselages.

tommy s

Confirming what tommy said: I have the MAN plans and a set of J&J plans sent to me by Art. They line up exactly. Incidentally, I have no special connection to Art. He refused my money for postage. He was just a big heart kind of guy.

------------


And spindly - and heavy. But that wouldn't stop me, if I had a hankering for one.

Many, many years ago, the wife and I (she was my building and flying partner in those days) were at a Lakehurst, NJ pattern meet. There was a father and son team competing that day with a chrome Super Monokote covered Eyeball. Can't remember if they had retracts or not.

Anyhoo, if the model had any trim on it, you sure couldn't see it in the bright daylight. I could barely keep track of its orientation, but you always knew when it was flying by the bright reflections being scattered all around. Unfortunately, later on that day, whoever was flying it became disoriented and the model flew back behind the flight line, over our heads and into the parked cars behind us. It made a sickening thud. Didn't sound like it hit anyone's car though. Funny, the things you remember thirty some years later.

I was under the impression that the father and son were doing pretty well score-wise, until that happened. It moved along at a fairly good clip too. I was rooting for them, but it just wasn't meant to be.


Ed Cregger

Hi guys,

here's a picture of the first Eyeball I ever saw, that belonged to my rc instructor in 1973. I saw it first in it's original single engine version, but it was later modified after a crash to a twin engine, powered by two K&B's .40. Man it was a screamer, aptly named "Double Trouble".
Believe it or not the plane still exists, now owned by another fellow who doesn't fly it anymore, but did change it back to it's original single engine.
The picture is pretty old, so sorry for the bad quality.[8D]

tommys is correct about the j&j kit having a built up wing,as I have that kit as well as a skyglass kit that uses foam eing and a fiberglass fuse.took me about 30 years to find a skyglass kit to replace one that I crashed due to a dead rx pack back in 73.the eyeball eas one sweet flying plane Ibought mine second hand ftom a guy that could not slow it down to land.he had a webra blackhead and retracts and was talking about adding doors to the nose cear to add drag.sold it to me for $30.I installed a hp series 72 61{blue fin model} and since I had no retracts and he kept them {rhom airs}I installed fixed gear .sorry to read Art died a few months ago.

I have one upstairs and it's a built up wing.

Wonder if anyone would like to see a build thread on this plane?

Dave

I think build threads are great!

Which kit do you have Dave? J&J or Skyglass. If J&J, a build thread would be good as I have one and would like to see how it goes together.

Mine is a J&J kit.
I was thinking either a YS FR 60 or a OS RF 61 for power.
Cool plane, would love to see more pics of some.
I just got done with a Sig Komet so one table is open.

Just to let you know the J$J eyball kit is rare,you should cipy the parts and leave the original alone and sell it to a collector.Believe it or not I sold a J&J eyball kit to Art S. several tears ago for his collection.I got some cash and another kit that had some water stains that was more of a builders kit than a collecting kit plus he autographed the plans for me.