Fyg Leaf

Anybody recognize this aircraft model or what you're actually looking at?




It's what I do to occupy my spare time these days.

I'd like to see what kind, if any, of responses come in and then I'll explain.

Ken Bonnema
(Yeah, the Brushfire, Overlord, Reed Falcon guy)

UStik

Seems you're doing with a mirror what else could be done "virtually" in a CAD system. No idea about the airplane though.

(Once I "built" your Brushfire in a simulator; now just 4 years in retirement.)

Fyg Leaf

Good to hear from you again.
If I did it in a CAD system, I couldn't bump my head on the wing tip when I walked by.
I'll explain the process if there seems to be some interest.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Very cool Ken. I’m still enjoying what you have done in the past. I have had a love for the Reed Falcon ever since the Circus Hobbies kit came out. Finally built one in 2016 with YS 140 power. A couple years later I found a built 72” version. Had to recover it to match it’s little brother.

Fyg Leaf

Those are beautifully done! I have never seen an example of both sizes sitting side by side.

I've always been surprised by the enduring popularity of the Reed Falcon. Did you know that at the time we selected it for the TOC it was only a design and not an actual aircraft.

I found it in Janes' All the Worlds Aircraft. It was the product of Dr. Maitland Reed and an aeronautical engineering class design project in Durban, South Africa.

The rules published by the TOC said to be eligible an aircraft had to be "designed for or flown in aerobatic competition." There was an exception for military primary trainers.

I contacted Dr. Reed and he me sent an entire set of drawings for his Falcon. Steve notified the TOC that we intended to use the Reed Falcon and attached copies of Dr. Reed's plans and the Janes article..

They approved it and the rest is history. But two TOCs later they banned it because it didn't exist.

Fyg Leaf

The big one we did had a couple degrees of up thrust. It just flew better that way. I included the up thrust on the 54 inch one's plans and got a lot of feedback that it didn't need it.

The photos look like both of yours have no left/right or up/down thrust. If that's right, does it work for you?

I like your paint scheme and graphics. At the time of the '84 TOC there was no real Reed Falcon, so we just had to wing it with the paint scheme. It worked well in that there was never any doubt whether it was upright or inverted.

Fyg Leaf

An explanation and additional photos of this modeling technique have been posted in the R/C Scale forum.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Ken, both of my Falcons have zero up or down thrust but do have a couple degrees right thrust. Both also have the top wing and stab set to zero but bottom wing slightly positive which was adjusted until no elevator trim was required for level flight. This also contributes to straight up lines and knife edge. The same philosophy was used when designing my current pattern bipe that I named Divergent. Thank you for the history on the full scale Falcon. Some tidbits I didn’t know. I had read that it wasn’t quite up to expectations ( full scale ) and there was some controversy surrounding the SA aerobatic team trials where two pilots were approved to fly it but not a third.

Fyg Leaf

Wow! That is radical. But I bet it knife edges well. It appears that the fuselage's side area is larger than either of the wing's areas.

Am I right that it can do a knife edge loop?

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Yes, knife edge loops are a piece of cake, zero roll couple and just a touch of pitch couple. Very small mix fixes that. Knife edge Cuban Eights with snaps on the 45’s are fun.