RC2054 Midget Mustang

Featured In: RCM&E September 2009 Issue
Name:Midget Mustang Model type: Semi-scale racers
Designed by: Tony Nijhuis
Wingspan: 38.5” (978mm)
Fuselage length: 34” (864mm)
Wing area: 2.1 sq. ft.
All-up weight: 40oz (1.1kg)
Wing loading: 19oz / sq. ft. (5.8kg / sq. m)
Functions (servos): Rudder (1); elevator (1); throttle (1); aileron (1)
Rec’d motor: .25cu. in. two-stroke

Dynamic duo

Regular readers will no doubt be familiar with the dogfight double plans that have appeared as the centrefold of RCM&E over the last five or six years. The last of these (MiG 25 Foxbat and English Electric Lightning) appeared in the May ‘08 issue, and ed. Graham thought it was about time I penned another battling pair. The question was: what would the subjects be? I couldn’t come up with anything so Graham and I sat down over a cuppa to come up with suitable candidates. Lots of tea, lots of head scratching, but no ideas came to the fore - likely pairings covering the major conflicts (W.W.I to the jet era) had all been done. At this rate the MiG and Lightning looked like being the last of my paired plans - the end of an era loomed large! The answer was brilliantly simple - forget warbirds and do something else! Er... but what? With a twinkle in his eye it was clear that Graham had a cunning plan; a plan that featured his favourite aeroplane. “How about a racing duo?” says he, “One of them could be a Midget Mustang? Oh, and no pressure old chap, but can you have ‘em done for the next issue?” Bearing in mind that I was already embroiled in the design of the Lysander that will be appearing in the RCM&E Special later this year, I was faced with quite a challenge. There was a twist in the tail, too. My ed. enforced remit for the designs would include getting away from electric power and using - I can’t believe I agreed to do this - horrible, smelly, oily two-strokes. Yuck! Mind you, despite my electric leanings I had to take a balanced view here, since not everybody appreciates electric flight. Plenty of petrol heads reel in disgust when I bring out another electric, so I reckoned that getting my hands dirty would redress the balance a bit.