Putting on my Roddie, Rusty, and Mark (Boesen) hats.

Well, being inspired by Joe’s Baron thread (https://www.coxengineforum.com/t7585-cox-baron-airplane#95521), my mind got to wandering and wondering again.

If I were to take one of these Wild Wings Planes and mess around with it, what would I get?



Notice the widening of the fuselage where the tank sits right at the wing c.g.?  If you pulled the plastic fuel tank, wouldn’t that be just about right for a bladder to expand and fill the space?

And wouldn’t it be interesting to take a Killer Bee backplate from Bernie, press out the needle valve and replace it with a 128TPI needle valve from a postage stamp, and place it in this airplane with a Black Widow or TD piston and cylinder from Bernie?

And that landing gear?  It just looks like it’d be in the way, since I fly off of grass anyway.  The plane could just be stooge launched.  It can go.

All that open space under the plane creating drag?  A quick application of tape under the fuselage to fair that over, and it’s nice and clean.  If the experiment showed promising results, a clear plastic or 1/16” balsa bottom could be cut and sanded to shape for a more permanent solution.

That bellcrank?  I bet it could be made much more flush with the bottom of the wing.

Hmmmm.   I just happen to have three Killer Bee backplates that need the needle assemblies pressed out of them (they were inserted into the backplates upside-down somehow), a TD P/C set needing something to do, a postage stamp backplate that could donate its NV assembly, and plenty of tape/balsa eagerly waiting to be used.  All that I don’t have is the bladder setup and the plane.  I guess it’s time to step up my search for the plane…

The Ever Expanding Project List Mark



Thinking some more, maybe a little more rearranging.  It's hard to tell from the photo above, but without the landing gear, the bladder could probably go ahead of the existing fuel tank, c.g. be damned.  Then, the bellcrank could be located inside the fuselage to eliminate that drag.  

Want to go even further?  Take some Dollar Tree foam, 3M 77 it to the bottom of the wing and sand it to match the top surface, making the wing symmetrical, and then cover it with packing tape.

I'd say my hare-brained ideas are getting the better of me, but since I'm wearing my Roddie, Rusty, and Mark (Boesen) hats, it's THEIR fault I'm doing all this scheming.

The Blameless Mark