[RICHARD PAINE]

OK, I give up. What is this forum about ?? What does S.P.A.D.S stand for ??
Just curious

[flytoit]

Per Wikipedia = Simple Plastic Airplane Design . Have not seen that many here in Ontario however down in Texas they were very popular made from 2 inch square plastic drain pipe for the fuse and corrugated sign board for wing and tail surfaces .

[RICHARD PAINE]

Thank you !!

[mikecoul]

Hey Richard, check out SPAD to the bone.
Building guides and free plans to download.

http://www.spadtothebone.net/index.html

[Cougar429]

I had one of these years ago. Easy to build and normally durable, but not so much in colder weather.

Only things used for this were the tail assembly and landing gear, grabbed from defunct spares. Everything else is as described.

ps. The main spar is a yardstick, something I found surprisingly hard to find.

[steven r]

We have quite a few of these in our club. Modified wing design a little and made the fuse from cedar. Lots of fun for little $$.

[chuebner]

I have the same design as Gary has except mine is all coroplast and gutter pipe. I put a thinner hardwood spar in mine and it flattened the wing airfoil out for more speed. We tie streamers on ours for combat. Lots of fun and tougher than nails.

[derekrv]

Hi,

I was wondering what a SPAD was too - and I find that I've actually built and flown one - not sure if this one "meets the cut" for a true SPAD purist - it used a foam wing, not cardboard.

Some years ago, I built and flew a couple of Gremlin combat planes (just for fun - not for combat). They used plastic downspout for the fuse, and foam wings. Still have a spare set of wings in the basement (and one built). Probably not a good idea to make it the first plane I put back into the air after 9 years out of the hobby

It uses 3 servos - one for each aileron, and the throttle. No rudders, so if you get it into a spin, there's no recovery (and almost no penalty I recall - the thing was so light, it would spin down to the ground, you go pick it up, flip the prop and launch it for more

racores.com is the website, still operating after all these years.


D.

[aspeed]

Styrofoam is still plastic in my book. The Gremlin is a classic like the Sig Wonder, but easier to make.

[Thunder Chicken]

I still have a few Spads of various homemade, ‘that looks about right’ design. Coroplast is free at the dump or asking car dealerships/ Tim Hortons when they swap thier sale signs out! Or use old wings that are in the rafters! The 2” square Plastic downspout is hard to find, but the ribbed stuff that is out now works just the same. I used aluminum downspout with success too. One winter we flew a lot, -20 and the spads were fine in the cold, there’s 2-3 feet of snow to crash into before the ice so still no damage . It’s a great, cheap way to use some old servos and old nitro engines and have a blast. You’ll fly like you never will with a kit built plane! And when it cartwheels into the sod it’s a good laugh!
With foam board and cheap electrics now the flite test design of planes makes spadding even easier! Just an evolution!