Chester Special

Control Line Scale Air Racer

AMA Plans Service Showcase Find the entire feature on page 47 in the June 2011 issue. Read an abridged summary relating to the article.

FRANK BEATTY admired the classic fullscale air racer Chester Special and built a 16- inch-wingspan balsa-and-tissue Comet kit of the same name while in grade school. The airplane (and the model) became a favorite subject of his and he vowed to build a better model someday.
Frank began his design by using three-views from J.H. Robinson (featured in the 1959 Aeromodeler) as his main reference. Using Brodak Piper Cream and Forest Green as the paint scheme, the model was 2½ inches:1 foot scale. Its wingspan reached 43 inches with a length of 38 inches, and the model weighed in at 6.5 pounds. A Roberts three-wire system was used to operate the engine throttle.
Frank initially had issues with the model being tail-heavy and pitch-sensitive, with the...
read more on page 47 in the June 2011 issue of Model Aviation.