History of the Buccaneer???
 

I recently bought (though I haven't picked it up yet) what appears to be a Buccaneer or a derivative. In trying to research the plane, all the early pictures show it with stringers running down the sides of the fuselage to give it a rounded appearance but the sides of the rear of this fuse are flat except for an angle near the top and bottom, and have a truss-like appearance...squares with diagonal braces. This one is fabric and dope covered, has rudder and elevator, nearly 8' wingspan, has modern radio equipment, and has 2002 AMA decorative gold stickers on each side. It doesn't look like it's even been flown. Does anyone know if this plane was kitted more recently or any history of the kits since the planes original design back in the mid-30's?

Thanks for any help,

Neal

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

Neal,

I will bet you will love it when you get it. Mine came from a friend who passed, and the plane
is over 50 years old. Silk and dope, Fox Eagle and flies like a dream.

Enjoy and sounds like a wonderful find !

Don - Basehor, Ks

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

The AMA Plans Service lists about 18 different plans for Buccaneers in varying wingspans. Don't know if this helps you any.

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

Thanks for the photo Don and here is a picture of the plane I bought. It's cropped from a much larger picture because at the time I didn't know I was going to buy the plane. My friend has flown for 20 years and said this was a great plane so I called the guy back and bought it. Notice how the rear of the fuselage is much flatter than yours? That makes me wonder if this is a later plane or maybe built from plans? I have an old K&B .40 that I'm going to stick in it. I hope that's an appropriate size? I also bought an old Pilot Sky Knight plastic ARF pattern plane from this same dealer a while back. Took me a while to find out what it was but somebody on RCU finally recognized it. My cellar is full of old Esquires and Livewire Super Cubs that I inherited when my father-in-law died. Most still have tube receivers and escapements but I'm hoping to convert a couple for modern radios. This old stuff has so much more character than the mass-produced ARF offerings of today!

Neal

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

You need to go to the SAMTalk web site at Yahoo groups for answers regarding the Bucaneer.

The Super Bucaneer was about 90 inch wingspan. thre were several models of differing powerplants and wingspans too. Bill Effinger designed up the Buccaneer in the late 1930's to show off and market his line of parts available from Berkeley Heights New York. This is written up in some older edition of the KAPA quarterly newsletter.

Bill Northrop did an updated plan of the Super in his older R/C Modeler Magazine and a few sentences about Berkeley there too. But overall, there were quite a few versions of the airplane issued via plan well after the company was sold in 1960. I think several companies offered representations of the model during the 1970's but each with their own design features, like wingspan, powerplant, radio gear, etc. But, the Bucaneer (by Berkeley) was one of the few models to survive WW2 intact and was produced in the same looking box for many years afterwards.

There were a few others produced by Berkeley to survive WW2 also, but big hint here is to look at return address. Is it New York, Arkansas or Iowa?



Wm.

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

Kits for many of the Buccaneer variants have been and are still readily available from folks like Klarich & Aerodyne (P&W)...typically just short kits w/ plans, ribs, formers & LG.

RE: History of the Buccaneer???
 

Ben Buckle Kits of Swindon, Wiltshire, England produce these kits. The American agent is Radical RC of Dayton Ohio.

Happy landings

David Davis