AIRWAVES

Model Airplane News, Aug 2004

WRITE TO US! We welcome your comments and suggestions. Letters should be addressed to "Airwaves," Model Airplane News, 100 East Ridge, Ridgefield, CT 06877-4606 USA; email man@airage.com. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity. We regret that, owing to the tremendous numbers of letters we receive, we cannot respond to every one.

BENT-WING WARBIRD

I was pleased to see your review of the Hangar 9 Corsair in the July 2004 issue of Model Airplane News. I have a Saito .91 4-stroke engine that would be a perfect match for the .60-size South Pacific warbird. Given its bent-wing shape, is there anything unusual about how this fighter flies? I have often wondered why it wasn't designed with normal straight wings such as those on the P-40 and P-51 Mustang. What's the story?

Frederick Hoffman

Los Angeles, CA

Frederick, the Hangar 9 Corsair is indeed a great flying model. Powered by a .91 4-stroke, it would be a winner for sure. As long as you keep the model's CG balance point where it should be, you won't find any gremlins while flying the Corsair. As it's a sport-scale fighter, I wouldn't recommend it as a first or second model, but if you can pilot a sport, low-wing model equipped with ailerons, you'll be fine!

Developed during WW II, the Corsair was intended to be a carrier-based Naval fighter. Because it was used by both the Navy and the Marines, it had to be rugged to survive repeated carrier landings. One way to keep the landing gear strong was to make them as short as possible while maintaining a safe prop-tip-to-ground clearance. Bending the wings into the well-known inverted-gull shape was the answer-an excellent example of form following function. Have fun with your bent-wing warbird! GY

WHAT'S CAD?

I just finished reading Gerry Yarrish's article on the Model Airplane News website about painting custom markings (modelairplanenews.com/how_to/custom _markings1.asp). In his article, Gerry says that he drew the letters and numbers using a CAD program. I am familiar with the term CAD, but he doesn't explain which CAD program he used or the programs that are available. Since I'm unfamiliar with the programs, can anyone help? Thanks!

Walter E. Seymour [email]

Walter, computer-aided-design (CAD) programs are very much a part of modern-day modeling. CAD can be used to design and manufacture model airplanes and accessories, and it enables hobbyists to draw their own scale 3-views. It saves time and effort, too. In a nutshell, CAD is a very accurate drawing program in which you use a keyboard and a mouse instead of paper and pencil. When the drawing is complete, you save it in an electronic file. You can send it to a manufacturer who can use the file to laser-cut wood parts, or you can print reduced-size drawings on an ordinary inkjet printer. The plans can also be produced full-size using a plotter of the appropriate size and width. Full-size drawings can also be produced by a desktop printer, but the many small pages must be taped together to produce the complete drawing.

To produce the numbers and letters that I used in my article, I first scanned in the 3-view drawings and then, using the CAD program, I traced and cleaned up the specific markings I wanted. I then sized them to ¼ scale and printed them out on my home inkjet printer. These became my templates for making the painting masks.

There are several CAD programs available, and some can even be downloaded free from the Internet. I use an old program called "DrawingBoard." It's no longer available because it has been replaced by a pricier version called "Vellum"; check it out at ashlar.com. A more affordable CAD program intended for use by modelers is "ModelCAD." It's available from Upperspace.com, and you can see it at upperspace.com/products/1019 or call the company at (800) 233-3223. I can't explain how to use CAD programs here, but once you have learned them, a whole new world of model design and drawing will be open to you. Here are the computer requirements for ModelCAD: Microsoft Windows 9x or NT (version 4.0 or later); a 486DX processor with 16 MB of RAM; a SuperVGA graphics card capable of 256 or more colors; and a SuperVGA monitor capable of at least 800x600 dpi (dots per inch) resolution. Hope this helps! GY

FIRST GEE BEE

Model Airplane News never ceases to amaze me; I learn something new from every issue. In the June 2004 issue, you featured a construction article on the Gee Bee Model-A by "Mr. Gee Bee" himself: Henry Haffke. Over the years, I have read dozens of Henry's Gee Bee features and construction articles and thought I knew just about all there was to know about the Granville brothers' aircraft, but I didn't realize they had developed a biplane. The history lesson on page 79 with the old photos of the full-size aircraft was the icing on the cake! I ordered a set of plans and intend to enlarge the model a bit so I can power it with my new Zenoah G-26. Again, keep the interesting and unusual construction articles coming! Henry is a modeling gem, and we're all richer for his model designs.