Starduster resurrection

balogh wrote:...............the the vertical stab is hanging down in normal flight? Very interesting and rare design..

Free flight, particularly competitive free flight, existed long before radio control and the planes were quite capable of long flights, both in time and distance.  To keep from losing the model in a fly away, there was a need to get the plane to the ground after a period of time.  This employed what was known as a dethermalizer (stop rising in a thermal) -- the entire horizontal stab would pop up at about a 45° angle and the model would flat spin down, slowly enough so that it was usually not damaged.  The timing process was either with a mechanical timer or with a fuse that burned through a rubberband that held the stab down.  The fuse was marked increments normally representing 1 minute of burn time -- you would light the fuse, start the plane and launch.  After a calculated period time, the stab would pop up and you would, hopefully, be able to retrieve your plane.  Having the fin on the bottom of the plane simplified this process and may also have slowed the rotation rate.  Designs, with the bottom fin, were fairly common during this time period.

Attached is a Half-A model with the lower fin and wire hooks that held the rubberband and dethermalizer fuse.


a--

yes, free flight
Starduster 600 (60" wingspan)
Sal Taibi design

here's link to outerzone for the 350 - smaller but same design - would work great with an .049
https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6330

the inverted tail was always interesting to me

I inherited this one from a modeller who passed on in ~ 2000. I didn't know him, but his RC friends knew I was insane for vintage stuff. It hung in my garage till last weekend, when I figured - if I AM going to a contest, I might as well bring something large.

It's been 100+ in San Jose this week, and my monokote keeps melting and loosening up in the heat, I am going to have to take a heat gun and hope I can de-warp it at the field, just in case

Tuesday I rebuilt the DT timer
Last night I learned to build a pressure-bladder tank from a balloon

Who knows, Saturday, I may learn to fly it!

cstatman wrote:
Starduster 600   (60" wingspan)
Sal Taibi design
..................

Sal Taibi was a prolific designer, fierce competitor and a household name in the modeling world for 70 years. Attached is a link to his biography published in the AMA Biographical Archives.  It's somewhat lengthy, but an interesting read.

https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/TaibiRSal.pdf

cstatman wrote:Who knows, Saturday, I may learn to fly it!  

I'm sure you will!!  Best of luck.

a--