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Pilots often ask me what
is my favourite glider and I am never able to answer. I like them
all. But the ones I remember most are the ones which have some kind
of incident related to flying them.
The Scud 2 is a very special glider which I had always wanted to
fly. Not only is it the oldest glider still flying in the UK but
it is also one which, as a schoolboy, I had made a scale model of
back in the middle 1930s. This particular Scud 2 was built in 1932
and seems to have escaped the war relatively unscathed. The Scud
2 was a slightly larger version of the original Scud 1 with a much
more sophisticated wing of 40ft span.
Like many duration model aircraft of that time it featured a diamond
fuselage with the wing mounted on a parasol. Apart from the struts
and control fitting, it is a all wooden airframe with birch ply
and fabric covering. The all moving stabiliser and all moving fin
are identical, enabling them all to be made in the one jig. I never
found out if you could actually fit the fin on as one half of the
tailplane but it certainly looked like it.
They just slide on to tubes and are retained with a pin. They are
all hinged close to the leading edge and I anticipated some interesting
stick forces, because ideally all moving surfaces need to be hinged
about the quarter chord point or the stick forces are all wrong.
The centresection of the wing is permanently rigged to the parasol
struts and rigging is commendably simple as the wings are so light.
I was half expecting the wing to be held on with the usual rubber
bands like my models, but two horizontal main pins, plus a further
one at the rear spar, hold each wing to the centresection and make
it easy to assemble.
There is no dihedral but the wings are swept back and tapered,
and this has much the same effect as dihedral. The aerofoil is the
Gottingen 652, an incredibly bulbous, highly under cambered, high
lift section capable of a fair L/D at low speeds but vast drag when
flown faster.
In 1932 you could buy it new
for £150 ($225)
The total weight was originally given as 150lbs, but when weighed
in 1936 it was 220lbs, and that is considered nearer the truth.
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