Check this thing out!

Despite the very strange looking side view, the porportions are almost perfect for slope scale.

How many of you can identify this very rare bird?

George

Bell Xp-77
Ray

Ray is correct.

I think Ado thought the idea was to give the plane a name as opposed to knowing what the plane was actualy called.



Only two of these were ever built. They were constructed almost entirely of wood, and were obviously influenced by the 1930's racing planes.

The idea was to build something cheap, fast and agile and made from non scarce materials. The prototypes did not perform as expected and the design was aborted.

There are very few pictures of the actual plane available, but here's a nice view of a scale model.

I knew what you were after...but didnt have a clue what it was...so I just named it George

Except for a change to the tail group, it looks very similar to the Firecracker:

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraf.../info/info.htm

Russ.

Originally posted by seafury_fb11
Except for a change to the tail group, it looks very similar to the Firecracker:

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraf.../info/info.htm

Russ.

Hey Russ,
the Firecracker, or more specifically the 8 ball were the inspiration for the R-6 mold that I have. The one everyone used to love to laugh at that was all painted all Yellow.

Brian,
here is some more information on the Bell Xp77 .
I had given thought to this plane as a sloper at one time, look at the nice high aspect ratio wing and plan form. pefect for sloping.
Ray

There is a lot of resemblence between the two planes for sure. I think the fin and rear fuse on the firecraker is more attractive. The reeasin for the wierd looking dip behind the cockpit on the XP-77 was probably to give the pilot some rearward visibility.

Like Ray said, the wings and planform just scream "sloper"!

I agree. The long, skinny planform combined with a thin airfoil would make for a super fast sloper.

Russ.

The 1930's racers had much smaller wings. (They didn't need to carry heavy armament and large fuel tanks.)

In order to make a slope version of most of the 30's racers, you would need to sclae the wings up by about 50% to get a decent mount of area for sloping.

The XP-77 could be built to scale outlines and would fly well. I would be tempted to reduce the depth of the fuse a little. The 77 is almost as deep in the fuse as the wing root is wide!

Here's a pic of one of the French Caulron racers to illustrate my point.

Side view.

Woooohooo. I like that Caulron even better than the Firecracker!! The wing does look pretty small, but if you are just looking for balls-to-the-wall speed, I would lean more toward trying to keep it on the small side and building the plane lighter to come up with an equivalent wingloading (ie- shoot for low 30's). Smaller wing equals faster plane. That's why the racers had such small wings.

Russ.

I had never seen that plane before, so I started searching. It's actually the "Caudron" racer. There's a couple pics of a model on this page:

http://www.ipmsitaly.com/vetrina/ptosetti.html


Another one. Is this thing full scale?
http://www.followme.ch/KurtMarti/LaFerte2003/IMG_0143


I think this may be the subject of a future project. To be honest, I think I like the profile of the one in the drawing better though. The razorback version seems to lose that swoopy line that starts on top of the nose and continues all the way back.

Russ.

....thread taking a twist, but anyway....Russ, look at the Caudron in the second link real hard. I get the feeling it is RC. I think thats even a transmitter below the fuse. And the engine looks too small to be man carrying.
Good search!
Ray