More than a year-and-a-half ago, Chris Gregg emailed me from Calgary, Alberta interested in plans for a third scale SGU 1-19. He had an example in need of restoration at the local glider field and thought it would make an interesting scale model. I had fallen in love with the simple and sweet lines of the 1-19 a couple of years earlier when I was mailed several photos of N91807 below and jumped at the chance to complete a set of drawings.
From an historical perspective, the 1-19 was a direct follow-on to the SGU 1-7, the first production glider designed by Ernest Schweizer in 1937. It used a very similar fuselage and tail construction and formed the basis for the 1-19 and 1-20, the 2-22 and 2-33 that would follow all the way up to the 1970's.
After several months of working out the details using existing three views, photographs sent me by several modelers and images of bare bones 1-19s and 1-20s that I had found. I completed scale drawings which were very true to scale, sent them to Chris for approval and final prints were mailed sometime last year after he selected his airfoil section from the HQ series.
My drawings included scale Warren-Truss ribs as in the original and to my surprise, Chris chose to use this method as shown in the photos he sent me yesterday to show me his progress on the project. Chris is one of those rare few master builders as I've now learned and I'm impressed with his talent and patience for detail. He's bent laminated ash to make the front stringer and used plywood-gusseted quarter-sawn Douglas fir to create the fuselage truss - a job very well done which makes me rethink the process of building these complex Schweizer fuselage structures.
I think the photos below tell all and I can't wait to see his next update as he progresses. By the way, the prints are three sheets, 36" x 96" and show both side, top and frontal views of the fuselage with all truss members and cross-bracing, and quarter view perspective drawing of an actual fuselage frame, isntrument panel and rudder pedal construction details, tailplane plan views, wing plan views for both the 1-19 and long-wing 1-20 version and fuselage cross-sections at all stations in wireframe.
Below isSGU 1-19 CF-ZAF in Calgary that inspired Chris.
Keep up the great work Chris!
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