Thermix '13

RC sailplanes have changed during the past 45 years. Now there is carbon fiber, vacuum-bagged fiberglass wings, ailerons, spoilers, flaps, crow settings, and highly efficient airframe designs.

big c

Orville and Wilbur started it all with an aircraft layout that today we call a canard configuration—that is the horizontal stabilizer/elevator mounted in front of the wing. Despite the Wright brothers’ success, aeronautical designers quickly found that today’s conventional planform with the wing in front and the vertical and horizontal stabilizers in the back is more practical, easier to do, and better performing.

Roger Dodger - 2005/05

IF AN AIRPLANE looks good and flies well, I suspect
that most modelers would have very little interest in its
design history or design inspiration. This lightweight,
all-built-up balsa, electric-powered sport model offers
an interesting appearance and lively, fun aerobatic
performance.
This project is based on a 50-year-old CL aircraft
design by Harold “Red” Reinhart. I was so impressed at
that time by Red’s flying ability and his aircraft that, for
some nostalgic fun, I went back in history to use this design
as the basis for a new electric-powered RC sport aircraft
with today’s technology in equipment and power plants.

Pages