I guess learning something new every day is something one never outgrows. I just learned while researching the Harland Ross RS-1 sailplane that she had a younger sibling named the RS-3 Ibis.
First "Zany", as the RS-1 has been called by her later owners over the years. I find at least three series of photographs were taken of her over the years. Initial images exist from 1937 in SOARING which show that at least for a while the RS-1 was flown unpainted. At this time too, she sported a canopy glazed with six individual flat-wrapped lights in aluminum or wood frames. In addition, it appears that from three views of this period in the same publications, that the early airframe lacked the enlarged landing skid, and that the aluminum nose cone/cover was more symmetrical in shape. http://www.trade-a-glider.com/picturepro/nfpicturepro/displayimage.php?album=23&pos=0.
Later on, Zany sported a striking red-and-white color scheme and the nose seems to be more widened at the top portion, leading into the newly thermo-formed canopy. And now too, the nose skid is enlarged, giving the ship a more bulbous look in the forward fuselage. Maybe its due to the white paint base color but in these photos the fuselage lower center area below the root of the wing shows a crease, beginning at the terminus of the belly skid and heading toward the leading edge root of the wing. In the more than 70 images that I have of the ship, several show that this only appears to occur between the two bulkheads which would be numbers 8 and 9. The fuselage bulges downward between these station points and so the transition between the two bulkheads is pronounced. You can clearly see this in the photo below.
Now to the RS-3 "Ibis". While searching for data on the RS-1, I came across this link http://www.soaringmuseum.org/landmark/nls14/nls14.html and my first impression of the photos was that I had found new images (for my records) of the Zanonia. But when I finally was able to download the high resolution images and study them with the text, I realized I had found the subsequent Harland Ross RS-3 which I was totally unaware of.
The canopy lower line swoops downward on this ship, and although the color scheme is similar, it uses a main wheel rather than a skid and appears to have a tail wheel as well. Performance gains were realized over the previous one-off RS-1 by lengthening the wingspan to 50 ft. with the same 17:1 aspect ratio and using a different airfoil, increasing L/D max from 30 to 34.
Another U.S. vintage gull-wing to model!!!!
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