I have had this one ready for a long time and I am excited to release it. This a contest-winning design by the legendary Herb Kothe. Herb has been flying and winning all varieties of Free Flight since the mid 1940s. I first became aware of this design when Tom Hallman started building non-scale aircraft for Flying Aces Club competition. Tom somehow tracked down the Go-Devil and got the plan from Mr Kothe. Of course, Tom wins with his Go-Devil!
I contacted Herb and asked if I could kit his design. He agreed and we coordinated on the redrawing of his plan. As per his instructions, I have kept this design to his specifications, with only one minor change (maximizing the wing area). Both the new and original wingspans are indicated on the plan, allowing the builder to choose. The 19.8″ span model features an under-cambered airfoil. You will get one sheet of 1/16″ parts (including laminating templates) and one sheet of 1/32″ parts.
I asked our young modeling phenom, Oliver Sand, to build the kit prototype. He agreed and you may have seen a write-up of the kit and build in the NFFS Digest. While he has not yet had the opportunity to fly this under full winds and contest conditions, he has had short power test flights in the 45-60 second range. His model finished in at 11.5 grams without rubber – quite light, but 15% heavier than Herb’s 10 gram model!
Here are photos of Oliver’s model. You can now find the laser-cut short kit on my site.