| Large model aircraft | - Large Model Planes |
from http://www.hobby-lobby.com/srtele-arf.htm History of the Telemaster The Telemaster was designed by Karl-Heinz Denzin while he was employed by Alexander Engel KG of Knittlingen, Germany. Older free flight modelers will recognize one of the design features which is the lifting stabilizer. Because of the lifting stabilizer, the usual balance point of "one-third of the wing chord aft of the leading edge" did not apply to Telemasters and modelers put the balance point anywhere from 40% of the chord to 50%. At the time that I introduced the Telemaster into the USA market (I'm guessing the late 1960's or early 70's) the digital proportional radio hadn't been invented and the usual control system was the reed system. Reeds required an airplane that flew itself a bit more than the later digital proportional required, so the lifting stabilizer was a pretty good match to the reed systems as the stab lifted a bit more when airspeed increased which caused the nose to drop somewhat and a more level flight path to be attained. This inherent stability also made (and still makes) the Telemaster a good trainer for beginning RCers. The first Telemaster kits that were imported from Alexander Engel had conventional "D tube" leading edge wing sheeting. Sometime in the 70's (and the dates are hard for me to remember) there was a bad shortage of balsa wood which was caused by the building of huge tanker ships for liquified natural gas. At this time Alex Engel substituted Duracell sheeting for the balsa D tube cover. The Duracell was awful. We had a lot of complaints because the plastic sort of a hard foam cracked and broke when it was bent. So, future large Telemasters started to use wood stringers along the top surfaces of the leading edge. It seemed that these sub spars apparently produced a more even airflow over the wing and probably turned out to be an aerodynamic improvement. Telemaster was a German design and the original Telemaster kits were manufactured in Germany, but the name "Telemaster" has no German roots whatsoever. Tele comes from the Greek and Master is an English language word. The airplane could have been called Telemeister, which would have been Greek and German, but it wasn't, and the reason is that Alex Engel was a huge admirer of the United States of America. Alex had been a German soldier, a radar operator during WW2, and he was the operator who detected the huge Allied invasion of Sicily. Alex was captured by the Americans and ended up in a US POW camp in Nebraska where he got an English language dictionary. He studied English and became an interpreter for the US government. But he wanted to go home to Germany after the war and he returned to his home in Knittlingen which is a small town just north of Stuttgart. An interesting thing about the Telemaster is that it was used to run “pull strings”, used as pilot leads to pull guy wires and electric wire over mountain ranges and other natural barriers in Europe. As of late the Telemaster has also become a tool used by scientists to do different atmospheric sampling tasks and aerial surveying. Also the Telemaster has become a popular subject for testing of autonomous flight controls. So it is really amazing how a 50 year old well-designed model still is so popular and to this day is venerated as a great design and keeps being used in new roles. - Jim Martin, former owner of Hobby Lobby With all respects to Jim Martin's memory I was working from 1976 to 1979 as sales manager at Hobby Lobby. I was in Germany with Jim Martin the evening over dinner when Alex Engel told Jim that he was not making the Telemaster kits any more and gave Jim the rights to it. We got Joe Bridi to do the kit for us and for some reason, Joe decided to put strips along the wing rather than sheeting, also Joe loved strip ailerons and the USA version of the Telemaster had strips versus the German aversion which had barn door ailerons. I have had both and the barn door ailerons worked far better than Bridi's version. I still have one of the German Senior Telemaster kits in my "stash". The German version of the Telemaster used very stout dihedral braces and the Bridi USA version used strips of light ply for the dihedral braces, and I remember well that we were getting daily complaints that the wings were folding up, so Bridi added a bit more dihedral bracing. Oh, the "real" Telemaster can fly with three channel or four, rudder is quite effective. - Regards to all, Frank Schwartz
TeleMaster Senior design information
You can download a copy of the Reflex document on the design of the Telemaster Senior. The Telemaster Senior The Telemaster Senior is ready built and covered in yellow iron-on covering. Just install your power system and radio equipment and fly it. The ready built Senior Telemaster is accurately constructed of balsa and hardwoods, with a rib and spar wing. The quality is tops. Its bright yellow covering is easily seen at 450 metres. How does it fly? It’s a Telemaster - and nothing flies like a Telemaster! It will land backwards in a 24 kph wind. Its take-offs are majestic, like an airliner.
For aerobatics or carrying heavy loads we’ve included wing struts and secure mounting points that will help the huge wing carry heavier positive G loads. The Ready Built Senior Telemaster has a two-piece wing . You can haul it in a small car. Almost all hardware is included in the airplane's box: Wheels, steerable tail wheel, hinges, pushrods, control horns, and more.
Above: here is how it comes out of the box... from http://www.hobby-lobby.com/srtele-arf.htm
Variants of the Telemaster Senior
Above: John Buckner with his six engine model aircraft, based on the Telemaster Senior design.
'Amateurs' soar to UAV win September 26, 2008 By Lacey Burley - from http://ausuav.com/ TOOWOOMBA man Simeon O'Neill and his best mate used their patched-up 30-year-old model plane to beat teams of university aerospace engineers at the UAV Challenge in Kingaroy. Mr O'Neill and his high school buddy Aaron Donaldson, from Geelong, won the main event, the Search and Rescue open category, taking home $5000. The Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs) Outback Challenge was held at the Kingaroy Airport and finished yesterday. The pair heard about the competition last year and decided to rebuild Mr Donaldson's dad's 1978 model plane that was gathering dust in the shed. With a budget of about $6000, they were impressed with their winning efforts. "Everyone was aerospace engineers, Simeon and I didn't finish more than a semester of engineering," Mr Donaldson said. "QUT had a budget of about $30,000 and the United States university had a budget of about $25,000. "And both university teams crashed their planes." The pair could have won the $50,000 prize. But they failed to complete the challenge after a wiring plug came loose and forced them to land. They will use the $5,000 prize money to prepare another plane. "We're ready for next year now," Mr O'Neill said.
The SIG Kadet Senior, from http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGRC58ARFB.html The SIG Kadet Senior has a huge 2m wingspan. The wing has a large surface area, allowing this plane to carry a payload such as a camera. With its remarkably light wing loading, you can transform the Senior into a flying platform for still or video cameras, lighting systems, parachute drops or glider tows without fear of overload. With its combination of large control surfaces and a high power-to-weight ratio, flying the Senior is a dream. Like all SIG ARFs, the Kadet Senior ARF is 90% assembled, using only the finest material, then expertly covered with premium Oracover(r) polyester film. A complete hardware package including top quality nylon and metal parts is included as well as an 8-ounce fuel tank and wheels. A fully illustrated, comprehensive assembly manual takes you from box to field in a few, short hours.
from http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGRC58ARFB.html
from http://www.pegasusmodels.co.uk/detail.asp?ID=991148& main=Aircraft& sub1=ARTF
from http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGRC84ARFB.html
The new SIG Rascal 110 ARF kit offers you one of the largest, easiest to fly R/C
model airplanes ever. The quality of this product is second to none and will
likely become the new standard for all other manufacturers to follow. The Rascal
110 ARF is a true " giant-scale" , IMAA-size sport model that provides
outstanding flying characteristics, using a wide range of engines, including two
and four-stroke glow engines, as well as smaller gas engines.
from http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?& I=SIGA6200 The design follows the extremely popular SIG Rascal kit, the Rascal ARF and the newer Rascal Forty ARF. The scale-like lines are decidedly from the " Golden Age" of aviation, making the airplane so realistic in appearance, it could be easily mistaken for a full-scale aircraft out of the thirties or post-WWII era. The Rascal 110 ARF is the perfect aircraft for onboard video or camera work. Properly powered, it would make a great glider tug and using off-the-shelf lighting systems it makes a great R/C night flyer.
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