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STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Old 12-16-2005, 04:06 PM
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Joe Nagy
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Default STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Hi Everyone;

Greetings of the Season to you All from the 'Valley of the Sun'.

I just recently acquired a beautiful '60s era kit called the STORMER, designed by Doug Spreng. Mr. Spreng was a RC pioneer, worked for Kraft Systems a way back when, and I know he designed another ship called the Flattop Stormer, and I believe plans were published in Model Builder magazine. I cannot find anything relating to the StORMER kit that I have; does anyone out there know if it was publised in the model press, if so when and where? The STORMER looks a lot like the Sr Falcon, but with a much thicker fully symmetrical wing section. ANy help will be greatly appreciated.

In closing, happy and safe Holidays to Everyone, and best regards from Phoenix,

Joe Nagy. email at: [email protected]
Old 12-16-2005, 04:49 PM
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Joe,
The "Stormer" was published in American Aircraft Modeler -- April 1961. I do have the magazine. Is there something that I can help you with?
Gene
Old 12-16-2005, 07:49 PM
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kdheath
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

And the Flattop was published in American Modeler 5/62. AMA/Pond has that plan. I was still at a pretty tender age then, but the Stormers won a boatload of contests.
Old 12-16-2005, 08:10 PM
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HighPlains
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

I think it would be more accurate to say that the Sr. Falcon looks alot like a Flattop Stormer.

Doug Spreng was the inventer of the digital servo for modeling. A very good write-up on the early development of Digital proportional radio is here:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/museum/bio/Spreng.pdf#search='doug%20spreng%20ama'
Old 12-17-2005, 09:52 AM
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Cool. This is a design(s) I have been pondering for a future project.

So, what are the differences between the Stormer (4/61) and the Flattop Stormer (5/62)? Is it simply the removal of dihedral? Or are there other refinements, too? I see they are both 64" span.
Old 12-17-2005, 11:02 AM
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

HighPlains - Where did you get the bio for Doug Spreng? I know I've seen the site before but can't remember where. The bio was written by a Jack Albrecht and I think I met him while stationed at Bitburg AB in Germany in the late 60's and early 70's. The Jack Albrecht I knew was a colonel in the Army (stationed at Spangdalem AB, nearby). We were both members of the Bitburg Eifel Aeromodelers. I remember he was heavily into electronics and even had a bunch of test equipment. The model club relied on him to trouble shoot R/C radio problems and he did once for me. I'd like to see it there's a bio on him.

Thanks,
linclogs (Jon)
Old 12-17-2005, 11:14 AM
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kdheath
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

The Spreng bio is on the AMA web site along with a number of others. Look under Membership Services and Hall of Fame for the list. When I last saw Jack Albrecht, he was working for Airtronics, touring the country and teaching about the new frequency allocations and "narrow band" equipment in the early 80s. Terrific, knowledgable guy.
Old 12-17-2005, 01:32 PM
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

I have built many stormers and flat top stormer in the 60's I have a set of plans of the origanal stormer. The difference was taken off the Canopy. I may be wrong but I thing the Stormer won the Nats. I even had a single channel .15 Stormer, with a Clark Y airfoil and rudder only .The single channel one was a Blast to fly BOB MOORE AMA 6559
Old 12-17-2005, 02:09 PM
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Doug Spreng won the Nats with a Stormer in 1960 and again in 1961 with the FT Stormer. He used a Veco .45 on both. The principle difference was the Stormer used a big block of balsa carved for the fuselage top (pretty, but a pain to carve and hollow) while the FT was just sheet balsa (like a Falcon). Both were flown on reeds. There were some variations in wing design, in span and also taper, but I believe most of his airplanes ended up using the constant chord for ease of building (good pilot, but radios of the day were unreliable). His articles on the designs were interesting reads, in a Dobie Gillis - Maynard beatnik sort of way.
Old 12-19-2005, 12:15 PM
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Joe Nagy
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Hi Everyone;

Just got back from a weekend out of town shoppin'trip for Santa Day, [Oh Wow!], glad to be back, and poor again or still...?

Many thanx to you all, especially Gene, and kdheath, for all the STORMER info. I have the AAMs in my archives, along with most of the mags of the time....ooh boy!.... if there was only a master online index for all the design articles, and others, it would make searching for stuff so much easier, but then it would be a lot less fun also.

Thanx again, wishing you All the happiest, merriest and very safe Holiday Season, best regards from sunny and almost warm Phoenix,

Joe Nagy.
Old 12-21-2005, 05:17 PM
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Joe Nagy
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Default RE: STORMER design by Doug Spreng,

Hi Everyone;

Prologue on my STORMER kit;

I checked out both the STORMER and FLATTOP ST. designs published in the AAM magazines described above, and here is what I found. My kit box has no lables or photos on it, simply hand lettered 'STORMER' on the sides and box ends; the plans are badly faded and yellowed blueine and have the name STORMER in the lower rs description box; but are identical to the plans for the FLATTOP STORMER with the exception of hand lettering vs AAMs machine lettering. Also my kit does not have the canopy, simply no room in the kitbox for same. From reading Mr. Sprengs 2 articles, the ships are almost identical with the exception described above wherein the STORMER had a carved fuse top a la torpedo/fish like, the FT ST had a canopy over the wing, and a flat balsa sheet fuse top from wing TE to tail group, for ease of building. The wing section is semi-simmetrical

Attn highplains re Falcon comments above: I noticed in the 5/62 AAM issue above, on pg 15, photo lower rs corner, showing Mrs Beth Goldberg holding a model identified as Mr. Spreng's FT ST, but really is what we have all become familiar with as the Falcon 56; so possibly the STORMER design influenced the later Coldberg Falcon designs, as the airfoils are very similar.

Again, I wish to thank everyone for their helping me ID and research my latest kit find. Research is so much fun, even moreso with the assistance available herein with 'da net'. I have placed copies of both the ST and FT ST articles inside the old kitbox, to aid 'whoever' in the future, should inherit my kit. In closing, only 3 more days to be 'good', for Santa...., Happy Holidays from Phoenix,

Joe Nagy.

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