If you can’t wait, you can find the Short Kit HERE. Download printed tissue template for this color scheme HERE. Scroll down for the rest of the story (and a test flight video!)…
The Aircraft Designs “Stallion” has been a favorite of mine since I saw the February 1995 issue of Private Pilot on the newsstand in my local supermarket. I bought the magazine immediately. There wasn’t such a thing as “searching the internet” back then, so this was a great source of scale documentation. I was (and still am) always on the lookout for high-wing airplanes with retract gear and without struts. I took it home and quickly started to lay out a Peanut plan. I built two Peanuts – if I remember, #1 was smashed and #2 flew away. This is the long-awaited third Peanut, built as a prototype for a laser-cut short kit.
Feb 1995 Private Pilot magazine and the Aircraft Designs Stallion
the inside of the magazine with an early CAD Peanut plan.
The build is “typical” – no surprises or complications. It is a box fuselage with a few formers and stringers. I designed it to be light, so I used light wood and many of the formers and stringers are from 1/32″ sheet. My target weight was the unobtainable 5 grams. I hit 7 grams, due to a 3D printed prop and spinner.
I wanted to keep it light because my goal was to fly it on a loop of 1/16″ rubber. I am pretty sure I lost #2 flying in the McCook Squadron’s “Watson Challenge” – where you can fly any plane with a 24″ strand of 1/8″ (I stripped it down to 2 strands of 1/16″). My records also show that the old one weighed 5.5 grams – but it may have been more, as I only had a homemade balance beam back then.
I also tried a bunch of “new” things on this model. I installed one of my light-weight mini Gizmo Geezer Nose Buttons (read about them HERE). Also (as noted in the linked article), I’ve been working with Archie Adamisin on 3D printed propellers. I put one of his on my Peanut Corsair and had great luck. This time, I wanted to replicate the 3-bladed propeller on the full scale aircraft, so I took one of his 3D files and modified it what I imagined would be a good prop for the model. This one is a 3-Blade of 4″ diameter, 5″ pitch, and a 0.4″ blade width. it looks quite scale!
The prop is driven by a Garami-style clutch bound to one of the blades and one of my tiny 3D-printed Clutch Drivers. This is all hidden under a 3D printed Spinner. The prop and necessary equipment added just about 1.5 grams to the build. So, between all that plastic and the sheeted nose (1/64″ balsa), I probably could have saved between 1/2 and 1 gram of weight.
As the beautiful fall day warmed up and started to burn off the dew this afternoon, I loaded up a 10″ loop of 1/16″ rubber and headed out to the back yard. After a little bit of added tail weight and a few twists on the adjustable nose button screws, I got some pretty decent test flights. Here is the one I filmed.
It is a simple plane, but simple things can bring simple pleasures.