Tag Archives: George Clark

Small Squirrel from Solid Balsa

Gallery, Sighting
Can you spot the Squirrel?

Submission from George Clark:

“I took a crack at building a very small Squirrel. It is challenging to get such a small plane to fly correctly. This is the second small Squirrel I have built and is another solid balsa plane. It is obvious that this is the lower size limit for the design. Currently, I am powering it with 2 strands of 1/8 rubber and a lightweight 5 in. plastic prop. Total weight with rubber, is 5.5 grams, the prop constituting 1.8 grams of that total. The rubber is too much for the plane, so I will be reducing it to a single strand of 1/8. The prop is also too large. A 4 in. or even 3 in. prop would be better. I have a 3 in. balsa prop that may work.

Regardless, the plane flies as is, albeit nearly straight up and pirouetting as it does so. In the one of the attached photos, you can just see the plane scooting over a neighbour’s roof. Thankfully, it circled back. I was only able to get one flight photo as it was really moving. The wing chord is currently 1.5 in., with a span of 10 in. I may increase the chord to 2 in. or perhaps even 2.5 in. and see if the result will settle the flight characteristics a bit.”

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Another report from George Clark.

Experimental, Gallery,

Submission from George Clark:

Sending along a photo and a short video of a new plane. Just testing it, but results on only 200 winds are promising. The plane has an 18 in. wingspan, 4 in. chord and weighs 20 grams, including rubber. Prop is hand carved and just 5 in. I feel the plane could better use a 7 in. prop, which I also have. More testing to follow. George

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Round Model Airplane

Experimental, Gallery

Here’s another submission from George Clark!

I have another for you. This is the Flying Circle. It has a 24 in. diameter wing, if you want to call it that and no rear stabilizer. It was a bit dicey to construct since I had to bend the wing frame into shape. The wing was also flimsy, as a gust of wind broke the leading edge on both sides. I had to reinforce the leading edge and put struts underneath for support, which threw out the c/g. It is now front heavy, so I will have to move back the prop assembly an estimated 3 in. The wing loading is .11 grams/sq. oz! Cheers George Clark

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Small Squirrel Bi-Plane

Experimental, Sighting

Another way to increase the wing area is to add more wings! Here’s George’s Squirrel Biplane experiments.

Darcy:

Here’s a couple biplanes. Differing in design, they are both very good fliers. The first has a 9 in. span and a 2 in. chord. It weighs 8 grams including rubber. The second has a 6 3/4 in. span and a 2 3/4 in. chord. It weighs 9 grams including rubber. Both are powered by shaved-down 5 in. props. Each plane took about 3 hrs. to build. The fun continues.

Cheers

George

 

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