Letters to the Editor
All letters will be carefully considered; those of general interest will be used. Send to Model Aviation, 815 15th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
Baker's Wellington
I was delighted and thrilled to see modeled, in the December issue of MA, one of my favorite airplanes, the Vickers Wellington. What a pity you were apparently unaware that in the midst of our hobby industry we have a former conductor of Wellingtons whose entertaining "line-shoots" (RAF jargon) would have formed an admirable preface to the article.
Eric Startup, the jovial sales manager for Sullivan Products, guided his geodetic wonder on several delivery runs across the Ruhr. Bearing the legend on the nose, "Kent's Best"—a reference to his county of birth, and a sideways reference to that county's beer hop industry—it would seem that every trip in the venerable Wellington was a barrel of fun, but I suspect the humor also hides many of the grimmer moments in Bomber Command's itinerary.
Eric's tale of how he and his crew one night marked their progress across enemy territory by fertilizing little bits of real estate through the cockpit window bears much repeating. How they managed the exercise, which can only be described as a "cheeky operation," without a major disaster is a mystery in view of the close proximity of the propellers to the cockpit. It seems that after all these years I have at last learned the true meaning of the expression "Bombers Moon."
Another of Eric's puckish pranks was to wait until a member of the assembled company was safely enthroned upon the Elsan (named for the manufacturer of that item of chemical furnishing), then give the stick a sharp nudge, whereupon the innocent victim was guaranteed some of his own back. Yes—as Frank Baker's article implied, the redoubtable Wellington was capable of absorbing all sorts of abuse! Certainly when Eric and I can get together at Toledo each year, any nearby hostelry is, for a few hours, immediately transformed into the "Mess," and should any interested modeler care to slide down the bar, the donor can be assured of being delighted and, like as not, embarrassed—by humorous anecdotes of life aboard a Wimpey in the dark days of WW2.
The model pictured in the article is obviously a Mark I, and definitely not representative of the typical operational aircraft which carried Frazer-Nash turrets fore and aft, each having paired .303 Browning machine guns with their characteristic conical muzzle flash eliminators. The yellow leading edge to the cowlings should, for the purists, be burnt metal, since these are actually Townend-ring exhaust collectors. I agree with Frank: the geodetic structure was not generally visible, except in one place, and any builder of this excellent representation could add a lot to the character of his model by allowing the geodetic structure—visible as a dull grayish-silver duralumin—to show behind the long plastic side windows. This one fact provided much material for the contemporary cartoonists of the period.
My log shows that, as a very young and green (literally) cadet, I booked 90 minutes in a silver-and-yellow post-war navigational trainer Wellington. I can testify that in flight, between the spars and on the fin and stabilizer, the geodetic construction became very visible, as the fabric tended to balloon outwards—looking for all the world as though the aircraft was covered with a delicate quilting. The fuselage, of course, had longitudinal stringers as on Frank's model.
The walk back to the smallest room in the house, along a foot-or-so-wide ply board, and aided by a piece of rope handrail, was not made any easier by the thought that only a layer of fabric and a coat of dope lay between you and the green fields of the west of England.
For those who may be interested in embellishing Frank Baker's design a little further, I enclose clips of Wellington Mk. IA and IC three-views, which indicate the features mentioned. I do hope you can find the space to reproduce them, especially as the Profile Publications mentioned by him are now about as scarce as hen's teeth.
Frank—many thanks for a few moments of nostalgia for us ex-RAF (colloquially "raf") types now resident in the U.S.A., and congratulations for showing once again that properly set-up twins are not all bad.
Jim Newman Hobart, IN
Schweizer TG-3
It was with great interest that I read the article in the November issue of Model Aviation on the TG-3 Schweizer Trainer. There was a reference in the article about the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH having one restored. This glider was restored by the students and instructors at Spartan School Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK.
The glider was last flown in the '50s, and was destroyed in a windstorm. It was outside rotting away until it was donated to the museum. When Spartan received the glider in 1976, it consisted of a twisted mess that once was a fuselage, and some rotted, decayed wood that had been the wings and tail section. Using blueprints, the students literally had to build the airplane from scratch.
I wish I had a picture to enclose, but I have not been associated with the project for some months, and it got away before I knew it was to be shipped. Perhaps the museum could supply photos to those sailplane buffs who might be interested.
David R. Busby Spartan School of Aeronautics Tulsa, OK
We contacted the Air Force Museum to see if they might have a picture of the TG-3 restored by Spartan, but a response from R.E. Baughman, Chief, Public Affairs Div., says they haven't yet had a chance to get it together for outdoor photography (after which it will be disassembled and taken into the museum for ceiling suspension). Concerning photos and documentation, Mr. Baughman had this to say:
"In checking with our Research Division, they have pictures only of the XTG-3, none of the TG-3 or TG-3A. They have no drawings. They do have a structural repair, erection and maintenance, and pilot's manual for the TG-3A. They further advised that the pilot's manual consists of 16 pages; the structural repair manual, 25 pages; and the erection and maintenance manual, 30 pages. These could be copied for requesters at a cost of 13 cents a page."
The address: Department of the Air Force, Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433.
Aerobie Plans
I need a set of plans that were published in 1970 — #1102 Aerobie. If still available, please send.
L. Vance
This letter came in without an address, and we were unable to respond. We hope Mr. Vance reads this. Apparently, the plan was originally published in American Modeler, which went out of business in 1975. AM plans were taken over by RC Sportsman, and after going through two owners, publication of the latter also ceased—and we have no knowledge of the availability of old plans that originally were in either American Modeler or RC Sportsman. If someone can provide us with current information on availability of full-size plans from these magazines, please do so.
Merlyn by Ken Bates
I received my copy of Model Aviation in the mail the other day, and was reading the articles in it from cover to cover, as I always do, when I ran through the 1980 LSF Regional Tournament coverage.
I really enjoy gliders and sailplanes, although I build powered planes once in a while. I saw a picture of Ken Bates' Merlyn. What a beautiful model. Found in January 1981 issue, page 23.
I would like to know where I could get more information on this sleek-looking bird. If it is in kit form, or plans, or just plain scratch-built. I love silent flight. It is relaxing. I would like to build this model.
Lyle Thompson Tacoma, WA
You're in luck, Lyle. We already had contacted Ken Bates about doing a construction article on the Merlyn. You'll find it in these pages one of these days.
Corben Super Ace
For those building or considering building the Corben Super Ace from the VK kit or any other sources, I would like to advise that I have, I think, the best scale documentation available for this bird. I can supply reprints of either a 1/2-in. scale three-view or the complete set of plans as put out by Corben in 1934–35. These copies are available through the permission of Mr. Paul Poberzny, president of the EAA.
In addition to the above, I am in the process of indexing all the model magazines in order to provide a Plans Finding Service to the modeling fraternity. For more information on this aspect, I invite anyone interested to write to me.
Now, I am asking for a little help from the modeling fraternity, especially the "ancient" modelers, as we were called by a "letter-to-the-editor" writer some time ago. In July 1979, we suffered a fire in our house. It started in the basement near the rec room, where I had my drafting equipment. Needless to say, when the fire broke through the partition next to my drafting board, I lost considerably more than my drafting equipment.
I was in the process of developing several RC plans, as well as preparing old magazine plans for one-sheet reproduction. All told, I lost 12 tracings in development stage, and 40–50 finished tracings of old plans, plus a lot of reference material.
Rather than listing here what I am in need of, I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can supply any of the reference material from the Thirties that I lost. I would also like to hear from anyone who has old kits or plans that they would like to see made available for today's modelers; if they will write, we can work out the details.
Incidentally, I have Model Aviation and Model Airplane News back to 1946, and Air Trails back to 1949—all indexed. Others are in process.
Richard W. Gleason R. R. 2, Box 125 Austin, MN 55912
Willard's Drake II
You consistently put out a superior magazine, but the feature article in the October 1980 issue by Ken Willard on his Drake II stopped me cold. I could not put down the drawing—let alone the pictures. Finally, I sat down with some scratch paper (I keep a roll of newsprint ends handy—get them at the local newspaper for less than a buck), and have large enough and long enough lengths to do about any layout I want—and started to free-hand the basic outlines of Ken's bird. I ended up with very smooth profiles, and laid them out for a scratch-built.
Two weeks ago, I wrote Ken, and sent him pictures of the result—as modified by me, I call it the Super Drake (photo accompanies). It finished out with a span of 6 ft., 5-1/2 in., and weighs 7-1/2 lb. It has a 13-in. wing chord and 7 sq. ft. of area. I finished it off in three different colors with iron-on fabrics, and had the best results with Super Coverite.
Basic construction is 1/4-in. balsa longerons glued directly to 1/32-in. spruce plywood with Titebond. The bulkheads are 1/4-in. plywood, and the top of the cabin is 3/16-in. ply epoxied (Sig Kwik-Set) in place. As I am using a K&B 6.5 on a 10x4 prop, I also used 1/4-in. ply and epoxy on the pylon and motor mount. Tail is 1/4-in. balsa, and nose is a hollowed-out balsa block.
After knocking off the prop (it turned over on wheeled taxi runs because of being short-coupled and having a rather high center-of-gravity), I modified it to a tricycle gear—as shown in another picture. The nose wheel is formed out of steel wire threaded on both ends. The wheel goes on one end; the other end is slipped into a vertical brass tube that is anchored to a base block in the nose lower end, and through the receiver tray plywood on the upper. An arm formed from a square brass piece is held on above a free washer with two nuts and lock-washers—and works off the rudder servo. This gives me an easy way to remove the nose-wheel assembly for water operations. The tail wheel was then cut off, and a water rudder with direct push-pull wire connection to the rudder was installed.
R. W. Harvest Boulder, CO
Thanks for the information on your modification, and for the pictures. Judging by the number of orders MA has received for the Drake II plans, there's going to be a lot of them out there.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
