- Thread starter
- #21
My compliment. Beautiful work. I found assembling a kit was great therapy. May make one more this Winter.
Balsa WoodKits
- Thread starter billrunnels
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- #23
Cardboard? Is it a kit or are you creating it from scratch?
A note in passing. The most challenging kit our two sons and I made was the "USS Constitution" with out sails. Getting the rigging right to have vertical masts was a bear. Finished off three decks. Worked on it over a period of two months. Sorry I don't have a picture to share.
I could create it from scratch as well. No problem for me. I did that in the past . However this one is a paper kit. But also I copied that one and made a "prototype" in order to check if it can be put together.
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- #25
Great work. We B-17 crewman referred to the B-24 as the "flying coffin"during the war.
I built a Spit and Fw-190 about 45 years ago. The Guillows models are still available online at Paul K. Guillow, Inc. I used to fly the .049 control line stunt planes too. Built several...can't imagine spinning around in a circle like that anymore.
Oh btw you asked me about the scratchbuilding... the engine has to be made from scratch... not finished yet but looking much better than the flat paper disks with printed flat cylindes. Also I had to made a new section for the nose turret and many other details. Additinally the stabilizer required changings in its shape because I decided to make elevators as separate parts. And also it didn't fit to the root at the fuselage top.
Night Fighter Nut
Master Sergeant
For those of you who still want to build wooden models, Cleveland Model company still sells plans for wooden model kits of all kinds. I have one of their plans for a P61 Widow... Like that would be surprising. Anyway, they have plans for WWI, WW2, Civil aircraft, 1920's through 30's. Dozens of them and you can pick what scale you want. The plans are well drawn and strait forward.
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- #31
Very creative.
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- #32
Thanks for the info
- Thread starter
- #33
I hadn't thought of it that wayTo be honest the B-24 looks just like you said. The B-17 looks much better .I would say more sexily.
Hey, Bill. Guillows is still around in nearby Wakefield, Mass. As a matter of fact they still produce something you might recognize...
Paul K. Guillow, Inc. - B-17G Flying Fortress
A new project perhaps? Be careful though, it's an absolute spaceburner!
- Thread starter
- #35
Thanks for the info. Space is something we don't have much of so will pass on this one. However it would be a fun challenge. The model they show has my BombHey, Bill. Guillows is still around in nearby Wakefield, Mass. As a matter of fact they still produce something you might recognize...
Paul K. Guillow, Inc. - B-17G Flying Fortress
A new project perhaps? Be careful though, it's an absolute spaceburner!
group (303rd) markings.
Glad to help. Never had much success with the tissue paper part myself. The frame, no problemo...Thanks for the info. Space is something we don't have much of so will pass on this one. However it would be a fun challenge
mikewint
Captain
Bill the problem with small engines is a physical Principle/Law, the Square-Cube Law. If you double the length of the model, then the wing area (length times width) increases by a factor of 4, but the weight and volume (length times width times height) will increase by a factor of 8 ... so doubling the size means halving the weight-to-lift ratio. For engines, the job of an engine is to convert heat into energy. Every BTU of heat that escapes to the combustion chamber walls only to be removed by the cooling system is a BTU of heat that the engine will never be able to convert into mechanical energy.
Doubling all the dimensions of a cylinder increases its volume by eightfold yet only quadruples its surface area so there is less surface area for the heat to escape to while the engine expands the hot gases in the cylinder.
In addition to large cylinders, the surface area of the piston crown and combustion chamber is further minimized by making the engine highly undersquare.
For this reason, great big industrial engines are inherently more efficient than tiny little engines.
So to jump ahead, this means that small scale engines "waste" heat energy. To run and produce sufficient power we turn to exotic fuels and highe RPMs. For example it is near impossible to get a throttled Cox .049 cubic inch model airplane engine to idle reliably below 5000 rpm even when burning fuel that's 30% nitromethane to keep the glow plug lit.
Scale effect is also why a model airplane engine can easily rev 20,000 rpm while a car engine can't. Why hummingbirds can flap their wings 70 times a second and a bald eagle can't. Why a St. Bernard pants in 50 degree weather and a Chihuahua shivers if the temperature drops below 75.
That being said:
In 1896, Samuel Langley flew a large model airplane for 90 seconds, powered by a steam engine of his own design.
Full-size, internal-combustion engines were in their infancy and miniature engines were hand-built curiosities. A.D. Stanger flew a model airplane in England using a V4 of his own design; the engine weighed 5 pounds, 6 ounces!
In 1911, the Baby engine appeared in the US. A large engine with a 2.67 cu. in. displacement (cid), it weighed 3¾ pounds with its 18-inch-diameter, 13-inch-pitch aluminum propeller and gas tank. It was advertised at ½ hp, swinging that huge propeller at 2,300 rpm.
The Baby was available in inline two-, three-, and four-cylinder configurations. The Baby used a bronze, bushed, split-aluminum crankcase, a cast-iron cylinder bolted to the lower case, a three-ringed aluminum piston, a carburetor with a float, and side-port, piston-timed induction.
This was typical of smaller internal-combustion engines of the day. There were no glow plugs in 1911. The Baby used a spark ignition system with a 5/8-inch Rajah spark plug, a set of engine-mounted breaker points that were adjustable for advancing/retarding the timing, and a coil, condenser, and battery mounted in the airplane. The fuel was a mixture of gasoline and heavy motor oil.
Weiss Mfg. Co. produced the Baby through 1929. Other large engines such as the Knight and Gil Aero Midget were designed. The Gil was smaller, 1.18 cid, 0.4 hp at 2,500 rpm (information from an advertisement), and weighed 16 ounces. It had a two-piece aluminum crankcase with a removable front end, similar to some of today's engines.
In 1931, Weiss designed a much smaller .331 cid engine. Weiss sold only engine plans to the .331; Louis Loutrel sold the assembled engines as well as kits containing the plans and castings. Loutrel eventually took over the Weiss engine, redesigned it to eliminate the rear timer, upped the displacement from .331 to .517 cid, and sold them under his name.
It was a good engine, but the cast-iron cylinder and piston weighed 16 ounces. In 1936, Loutrel sold the design to G.H.Q. and the quality decreased. G.H.Q.s were sold from 1936 until roughly 1948 in preassembled or ready-to-assemble kits. They were widely advertised in model airplane magazines, and handyman magazines such as Popular Mechanics, but few modelers ever had any success with them.
In 1930 while still in high school, Bill Brown designed a compact, .29 cid model engine. It used a fabricated crankcase and poppet valve induction. Bill built his own spark plug and coil.
Bill's friend, Maxwell Bassett, designed an airplane for the engine, but the .29 was severely underpowered. Bill built another engine, this time with .60 cid (the prototype of the Brown Model A). They put this into Maxwell's airplane, the Miss Philadelphia. Bill and Maxwell placed fourth with the Miss Philadelphia in the 1932 National Aeromodeling Championships in Atlantic City. There was no separate class for gas engines and all other contestants were using rubber-powered FF(Free-Flight) models, CL(Control-Line) and RC(Radio Control) had not yet been invented.
In 1933, Bill and Maxwell went to the Nationals at Roosevelt Field in New York with several gas models and swept the field with first places in all three power classes. The modeling world was astounded by the performance of the Brown engine and everyone wanted one! The following year there was a separate class for gas engine-powered models.
Because of the success and demand for the Brown engines, Bill's dad and another investor formed Junior Motors in Philadelphia and in 1934 introduced the Brown Junior model B, selling more than 5,000 engines in the first two years. Gas models had come of age. The Brown used a one-piece cast-aluminum crankcase, a turned-steel cylinder/fin assembly with a brazed on bypass, lapped-steel piston, and a simple tube venturi with a needle valve assembly.
Until 1934, only large automotive-type spark plugs such as the 5/8-inch Rajah and the 12mm Bosch spark plug were available. These plugs were too large for the smaller model engines. Junior Motors and Hurleman produced their own 3/8-inch spark plugs as did Blintliff and M&M.
In 1936, AC began producing 3/8-inch spark plugs strictly for model engines. At approximately the same time, Hugh Gunter started selling Clipper spark plugs. They were so good that Ohlsson and Bunch used them as their standard. Later Ohlsson spark plugs were actually made by Clipper.
These 3/8-inch spark plugs still weren't suitable for extremely small engines such as the .138 cid Elf. The cavity around the insulator added volume to the combustion chamber lowering the compression, so Dan Calkin made his own ¼-inch spark plugs. He hired Champion to make insulators for him.
With the desire for less-expensive, easy-to-transport airplanes and the advent of smaller spark plugs, engines such as the Elf, the 1937 Brat .139 cid, the Chunn Model Motors Chum .163 cid, the 1938 Dallaire Model Aircraft Pee Wee .11 cid, Madewell Manufacturing .147 cid, Condor Midget .162 cid, and Bantam .164 cid were produced.
Ben Shereshaw's Bantam quickly became a .19 cid and Ben produced it through 1946. It was a very popular, well-made engine, but the little 1939 Mighty Atom .097 cid, designed by Ray Arden, was the tiniest and best small engine of the time.
The Mighty Atom used a "piston valve" bypass where the fuel/air charge flowed through the center of the piston instead of around it. Ray's design talents and the manufacturer's precision made the engine easy to use and popular for eight years. Many airplanes were designed specifically for it.
A 1941, Model Airplane News Engine Directory lists 50 manufacturers and 62 different engines ranging in size from .097 cid through 1.53 cid.
Before World War II, engines were using a side port, crankshaft rotary valve, rear disc, rear drum, and piston-valve induction in many displacements. Most engine production stopped during the war. Afterward, many manufacturers did not resume production. Of the engines in the 1941 list, only eight of the 50 manufacturers survived: Atwood, Anderson, Avion, Bantam, Bunch, Elf, Herkimer, and Ohlsson.
A huge number of small shops turned to engine production. In 1947, Ray Arden commercialized the glow plug we know today. Modelers were quick to see the advantage of not carrying all the heavy ignition components and eliminating the points. In the June 1949 Model Airplane News, E.G. Ingrams' "Present Day Motors" article called 1948 the "Glow Plug Year" and had a list analyzing engines available in 1949. There were 79 engines and 30 manufacturers listed, eight of which were glow engines and six were diesels (compression-ignition). American modelers found the diesels didn't match the performance of glow engines and diesels never became popular, although Leon Shulman's 1948 Drone diesel saw a fair amount of use.
Eliminating the spark ignition components allowed much smaller, practical engines to be produced. These pioneers introduced a new genre of model aviation
Starting in 1949 Leroy Cox designed the first of his "Glow Plug engines" the .045. Soon the Thimble Drome line of reed valve .049s (Space Bug, Space Bug Jr., Thermal Hopper, Babe Bee, etc.) appeared, which set the performance standard. They were used in Cox's line of RTFs and kits designed for their engines, making the .049 the most popular engine in the world. Kids who couldn't afford a sparker and a 6-foot airplane could get a Cub .049 and a 2- or 3-foot aircraft!
Fox designed a lightweight and powerful .35 cid engine in 1949 that is still in production. It became the standard engine size for CL Aerobatics and a workhorse for CL sport flying, Combat, and for larger throttled RC airplanes. This is the engine I used in all my models
Doubling all the dimensions of a cylinder increases its volume by eightfold yet only quadruples its surface area so there is less surface area for the heat to escape to while the engine expands the hot gases in the cylinder.
In addition to large cylinders, the surface area of the piston crown and combustion chamber is further minimized by making the engine highly undersquare.
For this reason, great big industrial engines are inherently more efficient than tiny little engines.
So to jump ahead, this means that small scale engines "waste" heat energy. To run and produce sufficient power we turn to exotic fuels and highe RPMs. For example it is near impossible to get a throttled Cox .049 cubic inch model airplane engine to idle reliably below 5000 rpm even when burning fuel that's 30% nitromethane to keep the glow plug lit.
Scale effect is also why a model airplane engine can easily rev 20,000 rpm while a car engine can't. Why hummingbirds can flap their wings 70 times a second and a bald eagle can't. Why a St. Bernard pants in 50 degree weather and a Chihuahua shivers if the temperature drops below 75.
That being said:
In 1896, Samuel Langley flew a large model airplane for 90 seconds, powered by a steam engine of his own design.
Full-size, internal-combustion engines were in their infancy and miniature engines were hand-built curiosities. A.D. Stanger flew a model airplane in England using a V4 of his own design; the engine weighed 5 pounds, 6 ounces!
In 1911, the Baby engine appeared in the US. A large engine with a 2.67 cu. in. displacement (cid), it weighed 3¾ pounds with its 18-inch-diameter, 13-inch-pitch aluminum propeller and gas tank. It was advertised at ½ hp, swinging that huge propeller at 2,300 rpm.
The Baby was available in inline two-, three-, and four-cylinder configurations. The Baby used a bronze, bushed, split-aluminum crankcase, a cast-iron cylinder bolted to the lower case, a three-ringed aluminum piston, a carburetor with a float, and side-port, piston-timed induction.
This was typical of smaller internal-combustion engines of the day. There were no glow plugs in 1911. The Baby used a spark ignition system with a 5/8-inch Rajah spark plug, a set of engine-mounted breaker points that were adjustable for advancing/retarding the timing, and a coil, condenser, and battery mounted in the airplane. The fuel was a mixture of gasoline and heavy motor oil.
Weiss Mfg. Co. produced the Baby through 1929. Other large engines such as the Knight and Gil Aero Midget were designed. The Gil was smaller, 1.18 cid, 0.4 hp at 2,500 rpm (information from an advertisement), and weighed 16 ounces. It had a two-piece aluminum crankcase with a removable front end, similar to some of today's engines.
In 1931, Weiss designed a much smaller .331 cid engine. Weiss sold only engine plans to the .331; Louis Loutrel sold the assembled engines as well as kits containing the plans and castings. Loutrel eventually took over the Weiss engine, redesigned it to eliminate the rear timer, upped the displacement from .331 to .517 cid, and sold them under his name.
It was a good engine, but the cast-iron cylinder and piston weighed 16 ounces. In 1936, Loutrel sold the design to G.H.Q. and the quality decreased. G.H.Q.s were sold from 1936 until roughly 1948 in preassembled or ready-to-assemble kits. They were widely advertised in model airplane magazines, and handyman magazines such as Popular Mechanics, but few modelers ever had any success with them.
In 1930 while still in high school, Bill Brown designed a compact, .29 cid model engine. It used a fabricated crankcase and poppet valve induction. Bill built his own spark plug and coil.
Bill's friend, Maxwell Bassett, designed an airplane for the engine, but the .29 was severely underpowered. Bill built another engine, this time with .60 cid (the prototype of the Brown Model A). They put this into Maxwell's airplane, the Miss Philadelphia. Bill and Maxwell placed fourth with the Miss Philadelphia in the 1932 National Aeromodeling Championships in Atlantic City. There was no separate class for gas engines and all other contestants were using rubber-powered FF(Free-Flight) models, CL(Control-Line) and RC(Radio Control) had not yet been invented.
In 1933, Bill and Maxwell went to the Nationals at Roosevelt Field in New York with several gas models and swept the field with first places in all three power classes. The modeling world was astounded by the performance of the Brown engine and everyone wanted one! The following year there was a separate class for gas engine-powered models.
Because of the success and demand for the Brown engines, Bill's dad and another investor formed Junior Motors in Philadelphia and in 1934 introduced the Brown Junior model B, selling more than 5,000 engines in the first two years. Gas models had come of age. The Brown used a one-piece cast-aluminum crankcase, a turned-steel cylinder/fin assembly with a brazed on bypass, lapped-steel piston, and a simple tube venturi with a needle valve assembly.
Until 1934, only large automotive-type spark plugs such as the 5/8-inch Rajah and the 12mm Bosch spark plug were available. These plugs were too large for the smaller model engines. Junior Motors and Hurleman produced their own 3/8-inch spark plugs as did Blintliff and M&M.
In 1936, AC began producing 3/8-inch spark plugs strictly for model engines. At approximately the same time, Hugh Gunter started selling Clipper spark plugs. They were so good that Ohlsson and Bunch used them as their standard. Later Ohlsson spark plugs were actually made by Clipper.
These 3/8-inch spark plugs still weren't suitable for extremely small engines such as the .138 cid Elf. The cavity around the insulator added volume to the combustion chamber lowering the compression, so Dan Calkin made his own ¼-inch spark plugs. He hired Champion to make insulators for him.
With the desire for less-expensive, easy-to-transport airplanes and the advent of smaller spark plugs, engines such as the Elf, the 1937 Brat .139 cid, the Chunn Model Motors Chum .163 cid, the 1938 Dallaire Model Aircraft Pee Wee .11 cid, Madewell Manufacturing .147 cid, Condor Midget .162 cid, and Bantam .164 cid were produced.
Ben Shereshaw's Bantam quickly became a .19 cid and Ben produced it through 1946. It was a very popular, well-made engine, but the little 1939 Mighty Atom .097 cid, designed by Ray Arden, was the tiniest and best small engine of the time.
The Mighty Atom used a "piston valve" bypass where the fuel/air charge flowed through the center of the piston instead of around it. Ray's design talents and the manufacturer's precision made the engine easy to use and popular for eight years. Many airplanes were designed specifically for it.
A 1941, Model Airplane News Engine Directory lists 50 manufacturers and 62 different engines ranging in size from .097 cid through 1.53 cid.
Before World War II, engines were using a side port, crankshaft rotary valve, rear disc, rear drum, and piston-valve induction in many displacements. Most engine production stopped during the war. Afterward, many manufacturers did not resume production. Of the engines in the 1941 list, only eight of the 50 manufacturers survived: Atwood, Anderson, Avion, Bantam, Bunch, Elf, Herkimer, and Ohlsson.
A huge number of small shops turned to engine production. In 1947, Ray Arden commercialized the glow plug we know today. Modelers were quick to see the advantage of not carrying all the heavy ignition components and eliminating the points. In the June 1949 Model Airplane News, E.G. Ingrams' "Present Day Motors" article called 1948 the "Glow Plug Year" and had a list analyzing engines available in 1949. There were 79 engines and 30 manufacturers listed, eight of which were glow engines and six were diesels (compression-ignition). American modelers found the diesels didn't match the performance of glow engines and diesels never became popular, although Leon Shulman's 1948 Drone diesel saw a fair amount of use.
Eliminating the spark ignition components allowed much smaller, practical engines to be produced. These pioneers introduced a new genre of model aviation
Starting in 1949 Leroy Cox designed the first of his "Glow Plug engines" the .045. Soon the Thimble Drome line of reed valve .049s (Space Bug, Space Bug Jr., Thermal Hopper, Babe Bee, etc.) appeared, which set the performance standard. They were used in Cox's line of RTFs and kits designed for their engines, making the .049 the most popular engine in the world. Kids who couldn't afford a sparker and a 6-foot airplane could get a Cub .049 and a 2- or 3-foot aircraft!
Fox designed a lightweight and powerful .35 cid engine in 1949 that is still in production. It became the standard engine size for CL Aerobatics and a workhorse for CL sport flying, Combat, and for larger throttled RC airplanes. This is the engine I used in all my models
- Thread starter
- #38
Thank you for sharing this derailed information. I had no idea model aircraft engines were available in the 1035-40 time frame. Learn something new every day.
mikewint
Captain
Sorry to take so long to comment was busy with that Chinook.
The reason is more than likely the expense. Bill Brown was selling his hand-built engines in 1934 for $15. Sounds pretty reasonable but in today's money that is $285. Not a lot of people in 1934 who had that amount of cash to blow on a hobby.
When Bill and his father and their investors started Junior Motors to begin mass production of Bill's model B (they made 5,000) the B models were sold for $21.50. Again doesn't sound bad but in 2018 money that's $406.
- Thread starter
- #40
Very interesting. I had no idea that engines were available during that period. $21.50 was a lot of money to spend on a hobby.
.