Guillows sheetwood flying models - the Zip nocals.

[simpleflyer]

When we began to build and fly model airplanes in the early 1950s, we discovered the Guillows sheetwood scale models. One of the first that we encountered were the 'Zip nocals'.

Above is a picture of a kit from this series that we got off Ebay. As a kid, we had the Army Attack kit from the series, but I can't remember building it. I do remember building a Zip model of the F2H Banshee and several of Guillow's sheetwood shelf scale display models. A few years ago we decided to revisit the 'Zip nocals' and found a profile view of the Navion from the series in an old AHC catalog.

Using the profile and a 3 vu, we scratch built this Navion with an eleven inch wingspan.

When we got the Sportplane kit, we learned that the Zip series had eight inch wingspans. So we built a second Navion to this smaller size.

The Navions flew well in the backyard, but would sometimes escape the back yard or land on the roof.

[Scott]

Neat little Plane.

[simpleflyer]

Thanks, Scot, the Guillow's sheetwood nocals were neat simple to build little models, well suited for flying in small areas.

Here is another picture of the kit and a plan we got off Ebay.

It was only a partial kit consisting of the fuselage, wing and half of the horizontal tail. Also a plansheet from the Army Attack model. From these, we were able to trace the parts and scratch build a model of the Sky Pup sportplane.

A picture of the Navion and Sky Pup.


As you can see from the picture of the kit, the box size determined the model's wing span of slightly over 8 inches.

[Scott]

It's great to see the parts & plans from that vintage kit you
bought off Ebay.The Navion & Skypup look good.

[simpleflyer]

One of our projects is to build all six of the models in this 'zip' nocal series. Using a sketch of the Fighter in the assembly plan of the Attack and the dimensions of the Pup we were able to scratch build this Fighter.

We've modified it for 'swing flight'.(We will describe 'swing flight' more fully in a separate topic.) The mod consists of reinforcing the nose and attaching a swing line to the wing tip. The next pic shows the Fighter in flight.

Flying these little models using rubber power was not as satisfying as flying them via swing control. Using this method these models are more readily flyable and remain in the confines of our back yard.

We've also modified the Navion for SC.

The Navion in flight.

The Pup also has been modified.

Pup in flight.

[Scott]

Great inflight pics.

[flash52]

Nice looking planes. Takes me back to my control line days,converting Guillow's kits, back in the 70's. RC just cost to much back then. Did you make the wheels? They look great.

Flash

[simpleflyer]

Thanks, Scott and Flash, for the comments.

The wheels are made from black foam (from trays containing food from the grocery store). I cut circles of foam of the needed size. Then glue hubs of card stock(punched out with a hole puncher) to the foam circles. Use a pin or thin wire to make a hole in the hubs and foam and glue them together. To make the wheels more sturdy, some times, I cut a short piece of alum tube for a wheel bearing and glue it in the wheel center before attaching the card hubs.

Al

[simpleflyer]

Our most recent 'Zip nocal' is this scratch built L-5. As a teenager our second airplane ride was in a L-5 operated by the Civil Air Patrol. We used a scaled down plan of the Peck profile L-5 and copied it to card stock and cut it up to make templates for cutting out the parts.

The assembled L-5

L-5 in flight on a wintery day.

The L-5 flys well indoors, too.

[Scott]

Nice scratch built L-5.

[simpleflyer]

Scott, I appreciate your continued interest in these little nocals. We'll explore Guillow's sheet nocals a bit farther. In addition to the rubber powered models, they also produced a series of nocal gliders. The F2H Banshee that we mentioned at the beginning of this thread was from this series. We were able to get a few of these little gliders off Ebay. Here is the F7U from the series.

This was the first series of the nocal gliders, and consisted of: Mig 15, F7U, F86D, F2H-1, F-89, and F-84F. The series was expanded and rekitted.

The kit box was redesigned and the gliders were changed to catapult launch, nose doublers were added to the models, and the plan sheet was simplified. The series was expanded to include: F-102, F4D-1, F3H-1N, F-94, F-100, and F9f-6.

In all, the sheetwood nocals(rubber powered and gliders) numbered eighteen aircraft ranging from six to eight inches wingspan.

[simpleflyer]

One of the 'Zip Jet' kits that we got on Ebay was the F-89. We scanned the printwood and printed out a copy. Then we copied the paper copy to cardstock and cut out the printed kit parts and used them as patterns to cut the parts in balsa. Here is our scratch built version of the F-89.

Initially we flew it as a catapult glider and it flew well. Here are two more 'Zip Jets'; the Mig 15 and the F9F Cougar. For these, we found pictures of the printwood on the internet and used these for the basis of developing our patterns for cutting wood.

As cat gliders the trio flew well for their small size, about seven inches wingspan.

Via swing control, the F-89 flys better and longer than when cat launched.

[simpleflyer]

In scratch building these little 'Zip gliders', we found that the Guillows construction could be easily to adapted to nearly any aircraft that one would want to build. All that is required is a reasonable 3 view drawing of the aircraft that one wants to replicate.

Here is a Turbo Commander that we once were familiar with: N100TT. We found a 3 vu and copied it to card stock and cut out the main parts of the airplane and used them as patterns to cut the balsa.

Then we glued the parts together. Before cutting the patterns we drew in some alterations to the 3 vu, e.g. enlarged tail area, establish decalage.

The finished Turbo Commander.

The Turbo commander in flight.

[Scott]

Very neat, interesting pics & info.They look like
they all fly well too.
The Banshee sounds good.In the 1950's Banshees
were used by the Canadian Navy on the Carrier
Bonaventure(Bonnie).

[Scott]