TOPIC: Yak 23 & Jet Spifire

Roj Reese was at Buckminster yesterday. Roj reports:
"It was as warm but blustery, with not too many free fighters but met up with Brian Lever. Sadly no rocketeers but moi.....
I had no success to speak of with my sport models but when the condition calmed I ventured a flight with the Yak 23 [mk 1]. Using a VMC L-2 it climed vertically and looped in large repeat circles travelling down wind at a rate of knots. The motor run was constant and the flightspeed was fast. The model ended up about 700 metres down wind and found a tree on the boundary . I found model, less left wing .



It is repairable, and Brian, who witnessed this impressive flight remarked how wonderful and exciting a flight it was. Looking over the model post-flight, I noticed the thrust tab was missing, which probably resulted in the looping".

I take this as a success - we've all had far less succesful and indeed disastrous maiden flights!
The thrust tab might of course have come off in the impact with the tree, but its absence points to the importance of preflight checks.
As to the looping .... this can also be cured by trimming in a little left or right rudder or aileron to (hopefully) get a climbing turn. The fact the loops were dead straight shows how accurately Roj had built his model and trimmed it for the de rigeur 'dead straight glide from a hand launch'.

I hope Roj is encouraged by this first powered flight and I look forward to seeing how his mk 2 (which is a bit larger and therefore likely to be less fiesty) behaves. But we will pick a calm day for its first flight and try out some less powerful motors first.

Onward and upwards!

Sad to see the tree damage but brilliant nevertheless, congratulations, the model looks great too.

Earlier in this thread I stated that I had dabbled with a couple of designs that where essentially piston engine aircraft with underslung jet engines. I had built a FW190 based FW P1 profile model and mentioned that I should probably revisit the design.

Well, late last year I did just that and have drawn up a full bodied design some screen shots of which can be seen below.







I have recently retired so hope to now get a few models completed. If and when I get around to starting this I will start a new thread.

Hi JLD,
congratulations on your retirement! Hopefully, nowyou will have much more time for the important things in life.

As to jet derivatives of potent WW II piston powered fighters, don't forget Rob Smith's 'Thunderbolt jet'.



THis is EDF, but could easily be adapted for TSP L-2.

And then there's his 'Jet Spit:





I look forward to your FW P1 (or should that be a Ta-152 jet?)

I picked up some 'Sand 'n' Seal' from my local model shop, so will be giving that a go. Hopefully, it will be compatible with my printer cartridges.

You posed the question as to if the 'P1' should really be 'Ta-152 Jet'. I have checked my references for the 'P1' dated 1st March 1943 and it states "Wings, undercarriage, tail, rear fuselage were all taken from the Fw 190A, but with the broader chord fin from the FW 190C prototypes". The '190C' was Kurt Tanks initial look at ways to address high altitude performance and was to be fitted with an inverted turbocharged Daimler-Benz DB603 engine of which 7 prototypes followed before being superseded by the '190D and then the 'Ta-152'.

By May 1943 the 'P1' had become the 'PII' with the engine moved further back and a tricycle undercarriage employed. In November the engine position was moved above the wing and fuselage air intakes added each side of the cockpit. A month later it had sprouted twin booms and further refined in February 1944 to become the 'PV' better known as the Fw 226 Flitzer. Which reminds me that I still need to finish my Flitzer model restoration, I would then have models from the beginning and the end of its design cycle.

I had not seen Rob Smiths Thunderbolt jet before, do we know if a drawing is available?

RJS adds: I'll ask Rob if there's a plan.

The estimable Rob Smith has provided this plan of his 'what if' creation:



And very nice it is too!