Identify this A/C please

[twilightflyer]

I built this aircraft in 1961 whilst serving with the RAF in Malta and for the life im carn't put a name to it, can knowledgable modeller help?.

You'll have to excuse the wing as just as I had taken the shot a gust of wind lifted the port wing.

PS  It was a freeflight model with, I think, Mcoy 35  up front.

[Stephen Grigg]

You Microlite looks the same as one in our club,your Sports looks like a Caterham 7,Your Spitfire looks like a Spifire  and your mystery model reminds me of a Super Scorpion,have I won a prize

[John Bunting]

Was it built from a kit, a plan - APS perhaps - or maybe it was an American design, as you had a McCoy engine?

[twilightflyer]

I remember it as a kit, and the kit was bought from a model shop in Salima(Malta) owned by two brothers.

The photo was taken at the rear of our accomodation block.

[twilightflyer]

Posted by Stephen Grigg on 25/11/2010 20:25:13:

You Microlite looks the same as one in our club,your Sports looks like a Caterham 7,Your Spitfire looks like a Spifire  and your mystery model reminds me of a Super Scorpion,have I won a prize

 Sorry Steven, no prize this time!

[David Davis]

No sense of scale here Twilight but if it was powered by a McCoy 35 I'd say it must have had a 5-6 foot wingspan. (1.5-1.8 metres.)

 

Had it been smaller I would have guessed the Keil Kraft Ladybird on account of what appears to be a radial cowl.

[Peter Miller]

I don't know  what it is...but anyone who thinks it looks like a Super Scorpion needs glasses

[twilightflyer]

Posted by David Davis Telemaster Sales UK on 28/11/2010 08:15:20:

No sense of scale here Twilight but if it was powered by a McCoy 35 I'd say it must have had a 5-6 foot wingspan. (1.5-1.8 metres.)

 

Had it been smaller I would have guessed the Keil Kraft Ladybird on account of what appears to be a radial cowl.

 If I recall all those years ago it was about 5-6ft span, carn't remember anything about a radial cowl though.

Th A/C flew very well as I recall and it was flown at the disused airstrip at Ta-Qali, which is now the resident airfield for the twoo model clubs based in Malta.

 

I do hope that the modellers in Malta may see this request and hopefully reply to it, thanks in advance.

 

Ray

[Stephen Grigg]

I notice the under carriage is different from my Super Scorpion,but from the picture it still looks similar to a S.Scorpion to me,better get off to Specsavers then hadnt I PeterMay be I should get thesealthough the picture isnt to clear is it

[Peter Miller]

The Super Scorpion has fully elliptical wings and the fuselage does not have a straight line in it. The cabin is fully glazed right back to behind the wing.

 

The fuselage has a deeper belly in the cabin area and goes down to a narrow shape at the tail with sweeping curves. It has an upright engine fully exposed.

 

The undercarriage is an assembly with a front wire and a rear wire.

 

I rest my case.

[Peter Miller]

Just to prove my point

 

Now tell me that it looks like this aircraft

 

 

 

[Stephen Grigg]

Yes thats it just the same thought so PeterI have 2

[PatMc]

Veron Stentorian ?

[Peter Miller]

Nope! Not a Stentorian I can find pictures of that too if I have to to.

[Stephen Grigg]

Yes please Peter

[Peter Miller]

Tomorrow. The scanner only works on the other computer and I have to scan some coasters that I had made about 30 years ago.

[Stephen Grigg]

Any clues as to what you think it might be Peter?

[PatMc]

It's difficult to see what the tips look like in the photo & the fin shape is obscured but size & general layout are similar.

[Peter Miller]

Stentorian Colours are wrong should be yellow.

That photo that started this has a straight line along the bottom of the fuselage. Not the curved line of the Stentorian. Also the wings look as if they have parallel chord.

 

Lets look at this logically.

 

The model is large to be powered by a McCoy 35. In Britain we only had a few kit manufacturers. KK, Veron, Mercury and Performance kits.Skyleada may still have been in existence

IT is NOT a Mercury or Veron kit. The only KK kits big enough were the Junior 60, Falcon. Skyleada never made a big power FF model nor did Performance kits.

 

I had started modelling back in 52 so I would know the kits of the day.

 

From this I assume that it can only be an American kit which were very hard to get and very expensive in the UK at the time. I am not familiar with American kits of that time.

 

 

Edited By Peter Miller on 30/11/2010 08:40:22

[Danny Fenton]

I grew up in the States and flew Sterling Ringmaster control liners with McCoy 35. Pig of an engine in the UK it had zero compression until it was warm. We used to have a devil of a job to start them on a cold winters day. No whirly leccy starters back then, finger power only

 

Here is a Sterling Cessna 182 circa 1975/6 converted to fly control line witrh a Fox .19

 

Anyway the point LOL sorry, I had several US Sterling kits, and that picture Twilight flyer has posted isn't one of them (as far as I can make out.) I am with Stephen though, can't make out as much detail from the original picture at the start of the thread. Better go back to SpecSavers

[Peter Miller]

This is a shot in the dark but for some reason I keep thinking of Berkley Kits, Maybe because I have had one or two over the years

[twilightflyer]

Please,please keep the thread going, I am sure that someone somewhere will recognise the A/C.

I have shown the photo to all my modelling friends and none of them can identify it.

[twilightflyer]

Has no one any ideas what this aircraft could possibly be?

[Wiltshire Flyer]

Saw THIS not sure if it helps.