Building a Full-Sized Lanzo Bomber (96" Span) For Class C Ignition

Tandy Walker, Arlington Texas

Editor's Note:Tandy is a member of SAM 27 living, with wife Sue, in a suburb of Dallas named Arlington Texas.(New Home to the Dalllas Cowboys Stadium) He is a retired Aeronautical Engineer and an avid SAM member and talented builder and flyer of R/C and FF Old Timer Models .Tandy has been a modeler for over 60 years!He shares his projects via e-mail with friends and SAM acquaintences. He has written and published a book on the life and modeling exploits of Raymond C. Matthews Jr., designer of the Fubar series of FF contest models. This is assembled from Tandy's e-mails and photos so there may be, from time to time, gaps between text and photos but they will always inspire you to build, and give you many helpful tips in building!

Class C LER - I have the full size 96" Bomber fuselage framed and up on the gear

I started soaking five pieces of 1/16" X 3/8" balsa strips in one of Sue's large pans last night. This morning I removed the strips and wiped them off. I spread Tite Bond glue between the five pieces and then carefully formed the five piece spline around the stab tip card board form I made back when I built this model the first time. I just took the picture below, which shows how nicely the spline bent around the form. Oh yes, see the soap bar on the upper right, I rub the edge of the card board form with it to prevent the inside of the balsa spline from sticking to the card board form.

The last several days I have been considering starting the 84" V-Tailed Swallow, but since I have already have the fuselage framed up on a new 96" full size Bomber (see picture below), I decided to go on and finish it. I can use this Bomber to compete in

(1) Class C LER,

(2) Pure Antique and with engine changes

(3) Ohlsson Side Port, and

(4) Texaco Ignition.

This is just a second shot of the spline that I took.................Tandy

I have finished forming both stab tip splines and cutting out all of the ribs for the stab and elevator as shown below. Lord, I had forgotten just how big the full size Bomber really is. This stab has a span of 37" and a chord of 12-1/4". It is almost a wing in itself........................Tandy

Here are shots of the right and left stab tip splines being integrated with the 1/8" X 3/4" trailing edge. If you notice, the leading edge of the spline is elevated 1/8" so as to line up with the stab leading edge.......................Tandy

Editor's note: The laminated balsa tips are lighter and a magnitude stronger than the flat baslsa stab tips illustrated in the plans. They are more rigid than edge-glued pieces. Tandy's method of lamination is simple to execute and produces great parts.

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