This issue I have three biplanes for you Bipe Lovers, and two of them have round engines, and the third has been modified many times to take a round engine.

Norm Rosenstock has a plan of a Great Lakes, 2T-la that is just great, but then I'm prejudiced. I am a Great Lakes lover, having built one from a Model Airplane News plan for control line back in the early sixties, complete with a Fox .35 and a Rotovalve exhaust restrictor for a throttle. Remember?

Norm's plans are very complete and even comes with an eight by ten photo of the completed model. Span is 80 inches, weight is projected to be 18 to 20 pounds, wing area is 1820 squares, which figures out to be a wing loading of a little over 25 ounces at 20 pounds. Just right for a Quadra. The plans show the fuselage built up of a quarter inch balsa or spruce. Norm says there's only an ounce and a half difference between the two, so suit yourself. The Turtle deck stringers have been omitted for clarity, but there are thirteen of them and they run straight back from the rear of the rear cockpit, not tapered to fit the fuselage taper.

Empennage is built from quarter inch stock with ribs. What a spot for my aluminum tubing construction. The firewall has been extended one station forward of where it is on the original, resulting in a shorter cowl, but when finished you can hardly tell the difference.

A fiberglass cowl is available. The airplane actually has a tail-skid, made from spring steel, so it is truly a tail-dragger. Cabane struts are made from 5/32" wire and faired with balsa. Did you know that scale drawings by Joe Nieto are available from the National Air and Space Museum for this airplane? The original drawings appeared in Model Airplane News in the middle fifties. The landing gear is built solid from 3/16" music wire so all shock is taken by the 6" DuBro wheels. Experience tells me that this isn't so hot. I don't care how easy you set it down, something is going to give. However, on this airplane, it wouldn't be much of a problem for any Big Bird Lover worth his salt to design a workable shock strut.

Wings are constructed from quarter inch spruce spar with balsa and ply ribs of one eighth thickness, spars have shear webbing. Bottom wing has two quarter inch plywood dihedral joiners. Ailerons are built up and operated by torque rods, with a single heavy duty servo in the center.

Both wings are in one piece. Interplane struts are made from quarter by three-quarter spruce. Leading edges of the wings are sheeted with 3/32" balsa. This airplane has ailerons only on the bottom wing.

All in all, I think Norm did a great job with this design. It should fly very well and be very aerobatic, too. If you build this airplane and come out over 20 pounds, you should consider a larger engine to achieve the performance that this design is capable of. There are no flying or landing wires shown on the plans, but the Great Lakes had double flying and landing wires ala "Pitts" Special. A good three view will show them.

I don't know where you can get stream lined rod for flying wires, but I made some for my Concept Fleet from re-wind starter springs from power lawn mowers. They are 3/16" wide and about 8' long, so just go to your local Lawn Mower Shop and ask them for broken springs. It took two lengths for my Fleet, and believe me, they help and they look to be just about the right scale.