CONTROL LINE: NAVY CARRIER
By Dick Perry
7005 Del Oso Court NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109-2930
Mystery Airplane
Because of the time it takes to assemble and print each month's Model Aviation, I cannot provide winners' names for the Mystery Airplane competition until four months after each drawing is printed. To avoid keeping you in suspense that long, I identify the airplane in the column that follows the drawing.
Please remember: identifying the aircraft does not automatically make you a winner—unless you are the only entrant with the correct answer. Winners are selected from among those who correctly name the airplane.
- June's Mystery Airplane: XBTK-1.
- Manufacturer: Kaiser (or Fleetwings, depending on the period you choose).
- Competed under the same specification as the Douglas Skyraider (AD-1, prototype XBT2D-1) and the Martin Mauler (AM-1, prototype XBTM-1). A fourth, unsuccessful competitor exists; I may use it in a future drawing.
- Notable feature: very flat center section. The single flap has a straight, unswept hingeline with no dihedral and extends completely under the fuselage (no separate left/right flap sections), which would make installing flaps especially easy.
Brian Nicklas of the National Air and Space Museum published Nicklas' Law of Aircraft Identification (Air & Space, June/July 1997), which may help: "If it's ugly, it's British; if it's weird, it's French; and if it's ugly and weird, it's Russian."
Send Mystery Airplane identifications by mail or e-mail to IFLYCL@compuserve.com.
Contest reports — Whittier Narrows (Los Angeles area), CA — March
Fred Cronenwett sent photos and results from the Roland Baltes Scale and Carrier contest at Whittier Narrows.
- Ron and Bryan Duly (Burbank, CA) cleaned up at the contest, taking first places in Class I, Profile, and .15 Carrier events. Bryan beat his dad (and everyone else) in Class I and Profile.
- The Sniper models shown were designed by Bill Bischoff and produced as kits by Smith Model Products. Smith also sells complete hardware for the model, including the fuel tank.
- A Nationals photo shows Gary Hull (Lakewood, OH) and his attractive Profile model of the North American AJ Savage. The full-size Savage had two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines and an Allison jet; Gary's model was fitted with Cox .049 engines and exhaust throttles.
Models, engines, and multiengine notes
- Twin-engine models can compete in Carrier events. There is a 20-point bonus for multiengine models.
- Engine notes:
- Cox reed-valve engines do not meet the front-intake event requirement.
- The Cox Queen Bee .074 is an ideal size for front-intake events.
- Some .061 engines with throttles are available and would probably work well.
- Historical note: Ray and Virginia Randall flew Grumman Tigercat twins successfully at the 1959 Los Alamitos and 1960 Dallas Nationals.
- Kits and options:
- Two Tigercat kits are available on the market (Profile and Carrier versions), and there are options for those who want to build from plans.
- A large number of naval aircraft qualify for Navy Carrier events and would make good twin- or single-engine models.
If you are working on twin-engine models for Carrier events, I'd like to hear about them.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
