My friend Jose has just sent me an email with a great photo of his TMRC one-fifth scale SGS 1-36 Sprite nearing completion of fuselage construction. It is one of very few of these that were ever shipped and now they have become collector's items.
The SGS 1-36 was the last production sailplane manufactured by Schweizer Aircraft, designed by Les Schweizer as a follow on and replacement of the 1-26 One Design. With its first flight in 1979 in the waning years of metal sailplanes, it never reached the popularity needed to continue production after only 43 examples being built. It was produced in versions with the main wheel ahead of the center of gravity and the use of a tailwheel, and one with a nose skid and main wheel behind the center of gravity. It has balanced top and bottom surface DFS type airbrakes with the upper surface segment set well back towards the trailing edge of the wing to avoid pitching moment changes when deployed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_SGS_1-36_Sprite
Here are Jose's comments with his photo: I am planning to use the S7037 foil (pretty close
to the plans) and I'm lightening all of the components that I can without
compromising structure. Also the tailplane will be a foam core, sheeted in
obechi. Hope to get a lot of time in this week.
Jose is one of those rare individuals that gives back more to the hobby than he takes. As AMA leader and Contest Director, Associate V.P for District V and Park Pilot Partner, and has provided me with endless encouragement. You can find his posts at RC Groups as "Thermaleer".
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