[Warbird_ace]

15+ years ago when I was but a young buck, I got my hands on a set of Sea Fury plans. For the longest time, the Fury had routinely sat in my #1 slot of all time favourite WW2 era aircraft. Not just because of its sheer size, blistering speed, and unique look, but because it wasn't a P-15, or ME-109 (not that there was anything wrong with them, but they seem to be everywhere). So I purchased all the balsa, printed a bunch of photos, and set about "attempting" to scratch build this plane. Looking back now, knowing what I do now, I am thankful that I never saw that aircraft to fruition. No thought what-so-ever given to educate myself on aerodynamics, aircraft engineering, or structural design. It would have been a glorious disaster, to say the least.

Fast forward to 4 months ago. Cleaning out some bins of R/C stuff and I come upon this set of plans. Along with some other predisposing factors, I set out planning this build, which brings us to today. After some intense critiquing, measuring, planning, day dreaming, I decided to continue that boyhood dream from 15+ years ago and make this as scale a plane as possible. Cross referencing from a Fred Spring scale drawing, I scaled up everything I needed to add.

Powering this 56" beast will be (hopefully) a Sailo FA-120 R3 - radial glow. Because why not, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8vdIPrjH-Y

Moving backwards, will see the installation of a large >12oz fuel tank relocated to the COG. In the wings, will see addition of a scale set of split flaps, wheel brakes, scale-ish landing gear (raked forward, rear set wheel wells). That in itself was a chore, finding a set of retracts to fit within the cavity of the wing. See https://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/showthread.php?t=389946 for further details. I finally found an air system that both fits snugly, and provides the weight limit I was looking for. I'll also be adding scale gear doors, operated by small air actuators on their own separate valves and sequencer.

Back into the fuse, power will be provided by a LiFe battery, possibly 2, tied into a power distribution system.

Rounding out the tail will be a new, forward retracting tail wheel (which will be a nose wheel retract), and a trailing link nose gear. The nose gear retract will be actually left unhooked to the rudder servo. Instead, steering will be accomplished by differential braking. I hope.

Radio control will be provided by a FrSky X8R using the S.Bus outputs. With the large amount of servos in the wings, it just makes sense.

Odds and ends - Lights would be pretty, they aren't part of the immediate plans. Scale cockpit, will probably be added after successful test flights. Prop - large, 4 blade scale prop. Colour scheme - See below - Going for the "September Pops" Reno air racer scheme. Rarely seen, sharp looking in the air. Colleague of mine has agreed to airbrush the plane for me, again, once successful test flights complete.

So, long winded history and plan set aside, here comes the fun stuff.

I had the plans re-printed at Staples on a 36*48 inch piece of paper. The original plans were slightly bigger, so the print shop was kind enough to flip the plans around and print out the other side onto a separate sheet (that was the biggest printer/scanner they had). These pieces were cut out for templates. The plane will be built over top of the original plans.

One thing I discovered with my last build is a new way to pin parts to the drawing board. I acquired some expired 22 gauge IV catheters from work. Ditching the catheter part, and modifying the IV barrel so they don't lock closed, I now have pins that are sheathed, but provide good immobilization to the board. Whats nice is the barrel supports the needle, so I can single handedly push the pin thru the balsa into the build board without fear of the needle twisting and warping. And 22 gauge needles leave very tiny holes.

I've started cutting ribs out in my new temporary workshop in the basement.

Total hours invested to this point: Honestly I lost count, but I'd ballpark at least 50. This includes re-drawing, research, shopping, etc.

Sorry for the long winded story, stay tuned for ongoing updates as they come!

[Warbird_ace]

Couple things to note here. No target weight was provided on the plans. Obviously, adding a radial engine probably wasn't part of the original design. The plans call for a large number of ply parts, as well as a lot of solid parts. The ply will be replaced with carbon fibre, and the solid parts will be hollowed/thinned and reinforced with carbon fibre.
That's all I can think of for now

[Mike Sebastien]

Here is mine with a DA85 for power. Looking forward to your build

[Trumpetman]

Nice project! You would probably have needed nose weight anyways so why not use the three cylinder radial! Looking forward to your progress.

[Warbird_ace]

More than likely, everything seemed to be clustered in the nose.
Mike, is that the century jet set of retracts? How big is she? I would have liked the scale struts but they were too big for my wing.

[Max]

Looking forward to this build thread, Adam!

[Sukhoi 68]

I'm watching this one!


Scott

[Cougar429]

I have a Sea Fury kit stuffed in my retirement build pile and like that scheme better than the stock setup.

I wounder about the engine choice for a 56" version. One would think that scale would top out at 9-12 lbs.

[Mike Sebastien]

Originally Posted by Warbird_ace

More than likely, everything seemed to be clustered in the nose.
Mike, is that the century jet set of retracts? How big is she? I would have liked the scale struts but they were too big for my wing.

This is a old kit that I found here on RCC. The airplane is Fiberglass fuse with foam wings which are 88 in wingspan. I have a DA85 on it and weighs in at 28 lbs. The kit was made by Daves custom models and retracts are from Lightfoot products. Both are out of business.

I have some good scale documentation that came with the kit and could send to you.

Haven't test flow it yet, maybe this summer

[Larry Pierce]

Hello There:

I have a scratched Sea-fury built in the late 80's and 90's
Still flying at the 400 field. I do have a lot of reference pics. if interested.

Larry