This little plane is a 1938 Mercury from a company called Micro Models. I would guess that the kit dates to the 1970's or 80's. It was described a half size of .020 or .049 and suitable for free flight or the "new small single channel radios". The quality of the kit is super. The ribs were all machine cut. The only die cut pieces were the tips of the flying surfaces.I picked up this kit at an estate sale with the intention of hanging an OK Cub on the nose but the convenience of a brush-less motor was too much to pass up. I particularly enjoyed this kit as an exercise in old fashioned covering technique. It is done in nitrate dope and tissue. Since it doesn't have to be fuel proof the colors came from a rattle can. All up weight including the battery is 12.5 ounces on a 36 inch wingspan. I've only had the maiden flight which was a bit hairy due to radio issues but it shows promise.

That's VERY Purdy, I LOVE good old school dope and tissue

Thanks for the compliment. I got to put in a couple of flights yesterday in the calm just before sunset. I got the radio issues settled. I didn't have the elevator servo plugged in properly. The motor is a small out runner turning a 7 inch slow flyer prop. Even that is probably more power than it needs. The climb is very rapid. The next step will be to add some down thrust. I haven't checked the battery yet to see how many milliamps I burned but most of the flight was at 1/3 throttle. The size of the prop seems to have a pretty significant impact. Under power it turns to the right much easier than to the left. Using rudder only it will roll smartly to the right but hardly any at all to the left. A smaller prop on a higher KV motor would probably tame this and give a more prototypical flight. Since I'm not pushing the motor or speed controller at all I may just try a smaller prop and see where it goes. The plans only show the free flight version but converting to R/C was pretty straight forward with adding a battery box and building some control surfaces being the only major changes. Old timer models like this are a pretty easy build. I spent more time on the doped covering that you would with an iron on covering but not by much and I find that it is no more difficult and it seems to be more small model friendly.

The Mercury has probably reached its final iteration. I rummaged in the parts box and found a higher KV version of the same motor. I combined this with a 6x4 propeller and about 5 degrees of down thrust. The previous prop had been a 8x4.5 slow flier prop. This mellowed the handling and allowed the good free flight traits to come through. It still cruises around nicely at a little less than half throttle

Mgnostic,

Any change you still have the plan for this plane? I have the plane but had the fuse fall apart from age and wanted to restore it.

THanks

Jeff E

More than likely, I seldom throw away plans.

Nice Matt!
Michael Johnston

Not much luck in finding the plans. For what it's worth, it is a half size Ben Shereshaw Mercury. Those plans can be found on Outerzone.