I received two sets of drawings from Air Flair. They are for the Impulse Plus and the Express. The Impulse Plus is a large airplane and qualifies for IMAA rules. The fuselage is built from quarter inch sheet balsa with notched lite ply wide uprights, and quarter square spruce cross pieces. The firewall is two quarter inch laminations of ply and the nose wheel is bolted to the backside.

A Super Tigre 3000, or something similar, is recommended for power. The fin, rudder, stab and elevator are built up from balsa and spruce. On the second sheet both wing panels are shown and use 1/8 balsa ribs and two 1/2 inch square main spars, with shear webbing from butt to tip. All ribs are cap stripped and the ailerons very long barn door type. The leading edge is sheeted both top and bottom, making a "D" section which is very strong.

The Mono spar wing has the main spar set back about 1/3 of the wing chord, so you know this is a very strong wing. The landing gear block is made from three-eighths ply, and both the nose and main gear are from quarter inch music wire. My thoughts are that this airplane would sure look good with Impact Engineering shock struts on both the main and nose gear. It will cost a little money, but would certainly take a lot of the shock out of landings, takeoffs and taxiing. The method of attachment of the two wing panels is a great idea. The panels are bolted together on two quarter twenty bolts so they break down for the transporting and yet form one very solid unit for flying. From what I hear, some builders don't believe that this method is strong enough, so change it. Others have used this method and have not had problems. Look at it this way, full sized aircraft have the wings bolted on and together, and they have no problems. I talked to Jim Martin from Dayton, Ohio who has one of these ships with the panels bolted together, then the wing bolted to the fuselage, and he says he really wrings it out in the air and has no problems. This method is both light and very strong. All in all this airplane looks like it's easy to build, and would be a "ball" to fly. The specs are: Span 85 inches, Chord 15 1/4 inches, Area 1340 sq. in., Fuse Length 61 1/4 inches, Weight 14 to 17 pounds. Power from 1.5 qlow to 2.2 gas.

The next plan is the Air Flair "Express". This is a little smaller and lighter than the Impulse. The fuselage is built up of spruce longerons, uprights and diagonals, with a built-up turtle deck and covered cockpit. Cowling is built up of balsa and ply, and the landing gear is conventional. The fuselage is sheeted back to the trailing edge of the wing, and the main gear is mounted in the wing so you know this is a low wing airplane. The plan has all formers and sheet pieces drawn on the plan so it's easy to make templates, especially if you use see temp. The fin, rudder, stab and elevator are built up of balsa.

On the second plan sheet, both wing panels are shown. Ribs are 1/8 balsa, except for the root ribs which are 3/16 inch plywood. This is also a Mono spar wing much the same as the Impulse, and also has a "D" section leading edge and all ribs are cap stripped. The ailerons are built up and are practically the full length of the panel, sorta like a Fairchild 22. Again, the wing panels come apart and are bolted to the fuselage. Just as a hint, something I've been doing for years, and I'm sure some of you have also, is to face the ends of my ailerons and inside of the wing tips with 1/64 plywood veneer. This keeps the corners from rounding off when sanding, and also helps a lot with hanger rash.

This is another good plan, and with the semi-symmetrical airfoil should be a good aerobatics performer. Both of these airplanes can be had in kit form, and I hear they are pretty good kits. Look for Air Flairs ad elsewhere in this issue. If you decide to scratch build either of these, the plans can be had for $25.00 a piece, or the plan and pre-bent landing gear can be had for $40.00 each from Air Flair, Post Office Box 2075, Fiarborn, Ohio 45324.