Eric Clutton FRED

[Lindsay Todd]

Well I have set myself a challenge, 3 weeks to complete design, build and test fly a 48inch wingspan version of Eric Clutton's FRED.

Why, well I have had 12months to do this and made a promise to a friend in the Isle of Man to have the model ready for mid July. Below is the version built and flown by my friends farther.

Build update coming soon, very soon, in fact very very soon.

[Lindsay Todd]

Basic design layout done, biggest cheat is going with a flat section wing rather than the highly under cambered design which should make construction much easier and not be too obvious in the end result.

Basic fuselage layout looks like this - so construction can commence.

Linds

[John Lee]

Look forward to that Lindsay & good luck.

Eric used to do the annual inspection on our (full size) Luton Minor in the early 80's & always brought a model with him to our strip near Wrexham to have a play afterwards. I had the great pleasure in catching up with him a few years ago at the Toledo show in the USA where he & FRED now live. It's been good to see the revival of his Sharkface & Tadpole designs in recent years.

Behind Peter's G-MANX version in the 'photo is another full size built by a prominent modeller. The Pitts G-FLIK was built (& is still owned) by Rob Millinship, designer of the RCM&E Spitfire among other models. I used to fly with Rob as a member of the Long Eaton Club when at uni in the 70's. It is indeed a small world.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Looks quite cute Lindsay, lecky powered ? Wing section looks very thick/deep do's that help with slow flying ?

John

P.S answer me later you've not much time left

[Sean Tracey]

Hi Lindsey. I well remember back in the dim and distant past that The Aeromodeller did a very good article covering the FRED. It was around if my memory serves me correctly in or around 68 -70 what months escapes me . They did show scale drawings as far as I can remember. It might be worth contacting the publiciation and see if they still have access to the archive. Or some oldie like myself might remember the article. Good luck with it Cheers for now. Sean Tracey.

[kc]

It's going to turn out somthing like a Boddington Barnstormer with ailerons but without dihedral isn't it?

[GeeW]

Eric Clutton rebuilt his FRED to include a bit of dihedral as he didn't like the "droopy wing look".

And whilst I am here.....

Does this mean Le Frog project is all finished....or canned????

[Lindsay Todd]

GeeW, Le Frog now renamed Woodpecker is finished and awaiting a maiden flight so an update on that soon. KC yes quite Barnstormer-ish I guess, always like that anyway. Late update but their is a reason for that so here is the first build update.

Well you have got to start with a plan and got that sorted with a bunch of laser cut parts, yes I have had this in the background for a bit but not started till today.

All laser cut items done by Slec for me and a cracking job as always plus some timber ordred at the same time makes life a bit easier with a rush job. All main formers are in 3mm liteply but we start with the front fuselage from 6mm balsa

Note the holes in the fuselage sides, these are 3mm and mark the positions of the struts and also align with the front and rear faces of the formers to provide anchor points

First job is mark the front fuz sides with position of formers and then glue the small UC doubler from 3mm ply that adds strength to the uc forward block

With that done we can then make up the rear lattice frame from 6mm balsa which is glued into the cut outs at the rear of the front section and basically built over the plan

Mark up the position of all the formers down the fuselage sides and when dry I started bringing everything together starting with the centre two formers and the cockpit floor that all key together. I also added some 6mm square balsa to the lower front fuselage edge, soaked to help curve without cracking

[Lindsay Todd]

Next job was to add the second fuselage side using a set square to ensure it is positioned correctly and formers align relevant to the strut holes in the fuselage sides. I also added a further 3mm ply doubler to the front of the forward UC/ Former position for strength

Once dry the rear fuselage was brought together using 6mm balsa wedges top and bottom at the rear the top face being effectively the tail plane support. The two rear formers were also fitted at the same time, clamped and left to dry

Next job was to add the rear fuselage 6mm balsa supports for the sheeting from the rear of the cockpit back to the last former .

Next I added the horizontal 6mm square balsa bracing to the rear fuselage structure

Next was the undercarriage mounts , two off made from two strips of 3mm marine ply each and glued into the slots in the fuselage sides on the underside

With that done it was time to bring the front fuselage together and add the two front formers located into the previously marked positions and clamped till dry

Final job for the day was to add the 3mm balsa cross grain sheeting to the underside from the front former back to the first UC plate and then a further strip back to the second UC mount. The space beyond this will form an access hatch for the radio.

I recon that's a pretty good start. Next job is to bend up the wire mounts and make up some retaining ply boxes on the formers, a job for tomorrow evening now.

More soon. Linds

[McG 6969]

Hello Lindsay,

I'll quickly add a chair in this room before the build gets ending...

Is that a VW Type 1 engine mounted in the full scale?

Subscribed, Sir;

Hakuna matata

Chris

BRU - BE / CTR

[ERIC CLAPHAM]

From an article in the '68 - '69 Aeromodeller Annual, Fred himself explained the various engines tried. Initially, they fitted a 5T Triumph engine - they went through 3 of these - but that proved marginal on power. Next was a Scott Flying Squirrel engine taken from a Flying Flea. Very unreliable and everything/one got covered in castor oil ! Next was a rare Lawrence 5 - cylinder radial of about 40HP. On a ground test run of this unit, it stopped suddenly and the hub and prop flew off. This due to a broken con - rod, so FRED never actually flew powered by the radial. Finally, they fitted a converted 1500cc VW engine. This swung an ex - Auster 6ft. prop through a reduction drive, giving STOL- like take - offs. A little radial would look nice sitting out the front of the model.

[Lindsay Todd]

Bit more done on the fuselage starting by completing the diagonal bracing on the rear fuselage

With that done is was time to bend some lengths of 3mm piano wire for the centre struts, nothing more than measure, vice and hammer plus a cutting disc to finish the ends to size created these

The shape of the wires allow them to simply slot into the holes in the fuselage, I then build up ply boxes around the wires to fix there position. At this stage I don't want to permanently fix the wires in place so a smear of oil prevents the wires from getting bonded in place but allows a tight for the 3mm ply strips that form around them

This is done for the location for all three wires however the rear is shaped to look like the rear seat backrest

The final ply plates cover the wires and completes the slots

A quick check against the plan rotating the wires to correct positions ensures all looks good so far

[Lindsay Todd]

Well I needed to do a bit of digging around for motors and found an E Flight 400 that actually came out of my very first published design Zulu E and should be just about right. To get the correct position I needed to make up a motor mount that fixes the motor in the correct position, in this case the mount needed to be fitted directly onto the back of the front former so that make life pretty easy. The mount has an addition 3mm ply doubler on the back for added security for the motor.

I have not talked about former F2B as it was going to be a moveable mount but is not required and more complicated than necessary so we'll just pretend it does not exist, these things happen.

The nose block is made up from laminations of soft 6mm balsa the same size as the front former, the motor will sit inside this so will need to be hollowed out once the part is cut and shaped to match the fuselage

The hatched area will be removed and reduced through each laminate to give a good 6mm minimum clearance around the motor and as much additional to aid cooling . A job for the dremel me thinks!

Time to also make up the lipo battery support tray. This is made from 3mm liteply, a base and three sides shaped so that it slides and mounts between formers 2 and 3 at an angle.

The access is pretty good and easily takes a 3cell 2200 pack. The mount is glued in place to the rear of the 2nd former flush with the top edge of the fuselage and passes through a groove pre cut in the 3rd former so that it is supported at the correct angle.

The next job is to make up the frame for the forward hatch. This consists of two 6mm square balsa rails that sit on top of the fuselage sides between rear of first former and front of third former. additional former are glued onto these rails and then a centre top 6mm square balsa length across the top. The structure is pinned in place to dry ensuring it does not stick to the main fuselage with use of some cellotape in key areas. Ill add some corner wedges a little later for added strength but will basically be ready for its ply wrap.

more soon. Linds

[Barry W]

I remember Eric when he was doing his test flights of FRED at The Mier airfield at Stoke on Trent. It was in the mid 1960s. He used to tow the plane from his home to the field with his motor cycle and side car. He spent quite a bit of time sorting out his engine problems as initially he had a twin cylinder Triumph motor bike engine driving the prop via a chain reduction drive. Most of the early flight attempts resulted in a short hop before the chain came off the sprocket resulting in a rather hurried return to earth. Eric who had learnt to fly gliders at Long Mynd told me he had recuperated the broken wings of a T21B glider which he had shortened and modified for his FRED.

I used to fly gliders and tow gliders with a Tiger Moth at that time at The Mier and remember well the various adventures Eric had with his FRED. He did after a couple of years get it to fly quite well with a VW engine.

The plane flew quite slowly due to the thick T21 wing section which also gave it a very slow stalling speed. Once I overtook him when flying a Swallow glider much to his surprise as I had time to give him a two finger salute.

Happy times.

[ceejay]

I too remeber Eric, as a junior member of the model club that flew on Meir Aerodrome, Eric was a member too, spent many hours in and around the hangers there watching the glider towing, and been told by Eric Oi! dont stand there give me a push, when getting FRED ready for another sortie,

Also if memroy serves i seem to recall a cessna 337 on site at some point

tis all now a huge housing estate

hmmm

cj

[kevin b]

Another RCM&E plan Lindsay ?

I can't see David letting you off with this one !

Not my particular " cup of tea" but I can appreciate it's going to be a really nice model. Probably good for a reasonably new flier (like me) to have a go at as a first scale build and be able to fly it.

kevin b

[Lindsay Todd]

Another Free plan, if it all works out then certainly David is most welcome as always. Its nice to see a design and indeed Eric Clutton bringing up so many fond memories for people. I have to admit I was familiar with the name but not so much his work until the project came up last year and perhaps should this one go to plan it is in need of me doing a little potted history to the full size to compliment.

I'm not sure I'll get too much done tonight as I have a photo shoot for a certain glider to be done whilst the weather is in my favour but I'm itching to get on with the wings as quickly as possible so should get a good crack at things across the weekend I hope, time off for actually going flying as well you understand.

Linds

[bouncebounce crunch]

Lindsay, do you use jigs for your builds?

Please show how they are used if you do.

bbc

ps. looking good.

Edited By bouncebounce crunch on 23/06/2016 13:25:37

[Barry W]

Ceejay

There is an interesting book "Wings over Meir" (the story of the Potteries Aerodrome) by William Cooke which mentions in some detail Eric Cluton and his airplane FRED. The book which is mainly about the airfield also covers all the aviation events that took place in the Stoke on Trent area dating back to early balloon flights in the 1890s.

It also mentions Eric working as a 16 year old during the war at the aerodrome and on occasion being able to taxi across the field P51 Mustangs. In fact the book is very interesting from a historical point of view as it mentions many of the "Great and Famous" Bader, Leigh- Mallory etc,that came to The Meir both before, during and after the War. Also it mentions Eric wrote a book called "An Aeroplane Called FRED".

I hope this may be of interest to some of you especially if you are from the Staffordshire area.

Barry

[Martyn K]

Hi Linds

A very nice build as usual

Yours plans are always very impressive. What do you use to produce them and who prints them?

Martyn

[ceejay]

thanks Barry

will be on amazon searching asap,

spent my modeling formative years on the aerodrome, mostly free flight ( Matador, Caprice, and an Ajax instanly remembered) and some cl, no radio back then, watching Eric fly his single channel sharkface around doing all sorts of "manoeuvres" still brings me out in chuckles, you must have been one of the pilots, the Moth, still one of my favourite aircraft.

ceejay

[Lindsay Todd]

Hi Martyn, very lucky to access to cad at work and a printer so does make life easy but despite having cad most of my designs actually start with paper and pencil, I just move to cad as I can print them off through work.

Re jigs, well I use quality set square (multiple items on occasions) and steel rules, measure twice and cut or glue once. The only true jig I have is an incidence metre and that was a worthwhile investment, in fact I could do with another, there are times when two would be beneficial. Most of my design structures are based around a fixed datum line so there is always something to measure from. I guess I am quite pedantic about material quality as well, nothing worse than try to build a fuselage out of two sheets of hugely different density timber, in fact I would not even try. After that I guess it comes down to experience and having done things so many times before. One day I'll do it right !

[Lindsay Todd]

Progress continues with the marking out of some 0.5mm ply to form the rear turtle deck. I sometimes make a card template but for this it was actually just as easy to lay the fuselage onto the sheet and roll it across marking the position of the rear cockpit former and end former as you go and then cut to shape.

Next job is simply to glue and clamp into place. The ply overlaps by 6mm so covers the top rear lattice longeron and gives a good gluing area

Once dry the ends can be trimmed and sanded flush

You can also see that the wire struts can be sprung open and be removed at this stage which helps.

The front top cowl hatch was also done in exactly the same way and left to dry

For front canopy decking it was easier to make a card template first to make sure it looked correct

then checked for fit

when happy I transferred the shape to the ply, cut out and then glued and clamped in place

Whilst all that is drying, I also had an instrument panel laser cut so thought I might as well make a start on that

Made from 1mm ply, trim from main sheet and the small panel is aligned and glued onto the top of the first to give a bit of 3D form to it, next paint black and then glued some clear acetate behind then some instruments behind that. Same process that I have used many times and looks reasonably good

Loads to be getting on with but progress is about on target I guess. More soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Well a few more bits done this evening starting with the nose block for the cowl and the rear fuselage head fairing being carved and sanded roughly to shape. I still need to decided how to fix the front cowl block as it needs to be removable for access to the motor mount bolts, possibly use electrical bullet fixings which should work quite well. The rear coving has also been sanded so that it matches the profile of the rear fuselage deck, simply done by fixing a piece of sandpaper to the deck and sanding in situ.

Next job was the all moving fin. The basic perimeter frame is made from lengths of 6mm square balsa cut to length and glued together. The internal diagonal bracing from 3mm x 6mm strips and then some triangular 6mm bracing added to the internal corners for strength. Two strips of 6x10mm added behind the main vertical spar for hinge, horn and tail wheel fixing that will be laminated with ply once sanded to section forms the basic structure

More soon. Linds

[Lindsay Todd]

Full steam now to push on and get the tail section all completed. Starting by adding some 0.5mm ply reinforcing points to some of the joints on the all moving fin, the key element being the hinge line as this will need to carry three robart pin hinges for stability and the control horns so it needs to be strong

Putting that to one side to dry next job was the tail plane. This again is made from 6mm balsa, medium to hard density for the leading and trailing edges with a 6mm sheet section in the centre to carry the loads. Tips again from 6mm sheet and 6mm square for internal bracing

Well could not resist pinning the tail feathers in place to see how the back end looks

Back to it and on with the elevators, these are huge items relative to the tail plane, built in a similar fashion from 6mm medium sheet balsa cut to various strip lengths with sheet tips and 6mm square bracing. Additional triangular supports to the braces for strength and a healthy infill that will carry the wire joiner and the control horn, these of course will have ply laminates later. Another duplicate elevator left to do now.

I have also painted the instrument panel black ready for clear acetate and dials but I'll show that a bit later on in the build. More soon Linds