Hear Ye!

The Official Newsletter of the :
Valley Forge Signal Seekers
Radio Controlled Model Airplane Club

An AMA Gold Leader Club

February, 2002
No. 417

From the President,
Warren Barrick

Thanks to William "Bill" Fili for sharing his experiences with us at our
January meeting.

Bill was a flight engineer on a B-24 in the 15th Air Force, flew 34 missions
over targets in Germany and Eastern Europe, and was shot down and spent
harrowing weeks in a prison camp in Rumania.

Bill related his training, long flight overseas to combat, and the
frightening missions which ended with his capture and imprisonment.

A constant theme was the valor of the "young men fighting old men's
(politicians') wars." Bill emphasized that the freedoms we enjoy today are
the result of those young men who gave their lives in aerial combat during
World War II.

Show-N-Tell featured Gene Greatti with his high speed Diamond Dust, Joe
Weizer and a modified Balsa USA delta-wing, Frank Butta and a slick Goldberg
Tiger, Rob Caso with a 1/12th scale P-47 electric, and Russ O'Brien with his
adaptation of a shock absorbent landing gear. Thanks, guys.

Don't forget to make reservations with Carl Sutton for our Awards Banquet
before February 1st.

Reservations for the WRAM Show must be in Joe Weizer's hands by February
12th. You can do so at the Banquet or by calling Joe at home before the 12th
of February.

Please bring Show-N-Tell to our next meeting on March 12th. We will also
have a raffle on that date. Training will be our emphasis, and I'm sure Joe
Pasquini is looking for new instructors. Hopefully we can get more people
who are willing to provide evening instruction.

March 12th is the last date that you can renew membership without penalty.
Renew early!!

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VFSS INTERNET DISCUSSION GROUP
By Michael Myers

For those of you with Internet connections, there is now a very easy and
free way to communicate among ourselves. In a nutshell, you send an e-mail
and everyone in the club who signs up gets it. It is a great opportunity to
ask that building question, get an opinion or even unload that extra engine
or sell that plane.

You can trade tips, share experiences, ask around for advice or post photos
of your new project for all to see. The forum is sponsored by Yahoo Groups
and they do attach relatively unobtrusive ads to the bottom of the messages,
but you don't have to scroll down that far. Also your privacy is respected
and you will not get spam e-mail from this.

No one is automatically signed up. To participate, send an e-mail to:

vfss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

It doesn't matter if you put anything in the subject line or the body. Just
send a blank e-mail to the above address and you will be signed up. You
will immediately begin receiving chit-chat from fellow members as it is
posted.

If you have e-mail and wish to stay in touch and keep up the dialog during
this building season and afterward, subscribe to the VFSS group. There are
already quite a few of us participating and the more there are the better it
will get.

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WRAM SHOW

Everyone interested in the trip to New York to attend the WRAM Show on
February 23, 2002, must have their reservation to Joe Weizer by the VFSS
February 12th general meeting.

The cost is $40.00, which includes the transportation to New York, the
entrance fee to the event, and food and drinks during the trip to New York.

The bus will leave from the Church Parking lot at 8:30 AM on February 23rd
and return to the church parking lot at 7:00 to 7:30 PM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EISENLUFT EL-96 INTERCEPTOR - FOUL WEATHER FIGHTER
By Miles Bowman

Here's a brief background of the RC scale model I'm building of a
little-known European airplane. It was a German design that utilized a high
performance steam power plant (yes - steam). They never quite solved all
the inherent problems, and were often scoffed at by the public, who joked
about the large bulky steam airplane, but the aircraft was a technical
marvel for its time.

As you can guess, the plane was heavy; however, as the design matured they
overcame the weight associated with the boiler and coal by increasing the
wingspan and using high-carbon hollow alloy rivets. However, it was the
water weight that was the real problem. This was finally resolved by
restricting the aircraft to only fly in storms or high-humidity conditions
that provided enough rain or condensation to feed the Blohm & Vass-designed
"just-in-time" water injection and mist recovery and recirculation system
(WIMRS).

The aircraft's weight actually helped maintain flight stability and easy
directional handling through wind and turbulence; however, heavy rain had a
tendency to cool the boiler's exterior to the point where temperature was
often difficult to maintain.
EisenLuft partially solved this problem by mounting the gunnery turret on
the extreme front of the aircraft with a shroud that included louvers to
deflect the rain or condensation into Blohm & Vass water collection chutes.
A floatbowl and fluid level-control needle valve was incorporated into the
storage tank to prevent over-rich or "grosswasser" conditions.
The prop shaft extended back from the propeller, through this turret, and
then back to the gearbox directly in front of the boiler's firebox. This
long prop shaft allowed installation of the famous 88-millimeter cannon in
the very front of the firebox and inside the prop shaft. Thus, it fired
rounds out through the center of the propeller's hub. The 88 proved
adequate in shooting down blimps and airships; however, it was difficult to
load and caused aircraft handling and torque problems due to the terrific
recoil and the extreme effect from the cannon barrel's rifling.

Loading the 88 mm round was difficult because the shell needed to be passed
through the entire length of the boiler's firebox in order to be inserted
into the breach. While the ceramic loading mechanism was reliable, if this
procedure wasn't done quickly, the shell would explode from the fire's heat
and force extreme pressure into the boiler, resulting in an uncontrolled
burst of airspeed. There were several reported cases of crewman being
ejected from the "cab" due to the plane's violent and unexpected rapid
acceleration.

Changing the 88's rifling to twist in an opposite direction from the prop
rotation solved the torque problem, while installing the first ever crew
seatbelts helped mitigate both the cannon's recoil effects and the
acceleration whiplash from the shells "cooking off" in the boiler firebox.

The moveable turret eliminated the need for a rudder, so if you ever see an
EisenLuft EL-96 scale model with a rudder, it is technically incorrect. If
fact, the aircraft was maneuvered side-to-side via a steerable propeller
(SP) supported by a high performance hollow thin-wall universal-joint (TWUJ)
much like the "C-V joints" that are used until this day in rear-engine
Indianapolis and Formula-1 race cars. Unfortunately, the cannon could only
be fired while the aircraft was steered straight forward, or else the
high-velocity 88mm round would shatter the hollow TWUJ which was obviously
bent while traversing the prop and EL-96 through a turn.

The SP concept was, in fact, highly efficient and 180-degree turns in the
4,500-pound aircraft were commonly done in less than 200 yards. The
traverse angle of the propeller was later reduced by limiting the TWUJ
flexibility because these rapid turns would typically shear off the main
wings, misfire the cannon, fracture the prop-shaft, and eject the crewmen,
seatbelts or not. The gyroscopic forces associated with the SP were
significant and traversing was only accomplished via hyper-pressurized
hydraulic linkage charged by a full head of boiler steam, which is why the
concept is not used on internal combustion aircraft today. There simply
isn't enough available horsepower produced by modern designs. A crude and
partial application of this technology was, however, adopted many years
later for the moveable "droop-nose" on the Concorde supersonic jetliner.

The Kaiser eventually grounded all EL-96 squadrons because the residue from
the firebox kept igniting the fabric covering on the horizontal stabilizer
and elevator. The tail surface's EssenFabrik-Werk manufacturer partially
solved this inconvenience by producing a stressed-skin cast-iron surface for
the stabilizer, but then the soot stuck to this and disrupted the airflow,
which was highly critical for the high-lift of the "laminar design."

It's ironic that the North American Company's highly successful P51 Mustang
fighter copied the EL-96 laminar airflow technology for use in WWII against
Germany. That's why it's no coincidence that the Mustang's exhaust stacks
were placed high on the fuselage to keep soot off its laminar airflow, while
the ME-109's stacks were lower because the laminar design wasn't utilized by
Messerschmitt (one has to wonder why?).

Sadly, they never figured out whether it was the drag from the soot or just
the cast iron weight of the horizontal stab - but in either case, the
aircraft had a tendency to become unstable and crash due to loss of lift or
improper center of gravity or whatever. It still remains an unsolved
mystery today and your guess about the actual cause is as good as mine.
(No objective crash data exists now because the top-secret documentation was
destroyed when the remaining EisenLuftWerks were destroyed in a May 1944
massive RAF precision bombing raid.)

In the end, the fact that the aircraft were crashing was bearable, but the
horrific infernos they would start on impact were not, and so the government
finally ordered the EL-96's to either fly over France - or nowhere.
Reluctantly, after much development, the whole Geschwader (Kampfgruppes EL96
A, B, & C) was permanently grounded, and years later the remaining EL-96
hulks (without boilers) were used as test glide-bombs in the "Mistel"
program. The boilers had previously been removed and were being used by
EisenLuft's Unterseeschiffe division for U-boat testing in the Baltic.

There were other lasting developments resulting from the aircraft. First,
seatbelts were adapted on all later aircraft. Second, it turns out that
the Ruhr Valley's military-industrial complex was intrigued how the cinders
from the crashed plane's fireboxes started terrible infernos, and so the
concept of an "incendiary bomb" was a direct result of the EL-96. Years
later, an engineer named Tucker was inspired by the SP steerable prop, and
designed the headlights on his highly advanced American automobiles to
operate using a similar principal. Also, all Conrail locomotives have
headlights that spin in a dizzying off-center radius that has odd
similarities to the helix of an ER-96's snap roll.

No other steam aircraft were ever operationally deployed, although another
EisenLuft design, the EL-97-PC3 (Shooting Comet), was equipped with pea-coal
injection and submitted in the mid 1930's for consideration as a night
fighter. This design was flawed, however, because the firebox (pea-coal
version PC3) produced a trail of embers and glowing ash nuggets that spanned
a quarter mile and allowed easy tracking by enemy night fighters. The
EL-97-B3 was then submitted as a bomber, but the Luftwaffe contract was
instead awarded to the Junker Company's diesel-powered JU-86. As far as I
know, there are sadly no EL-96s or EL-97-PC3s still in existence today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VFSS BOG MEETING
By Dee Messina, Secretary

January 3, 2002
16 members present

OLD BUSINESS

Item 1 - 2002 Banquet preparations were finalized.

NEW BUSINESS

Item 1 - the new year budget was drafted and approved for 2002. Some income
was decreased, due primarily to lower membership numbers. The club also
spent more on school involvements. We will adjust the budget midyear, if
necessary.

Item 2 - The club membership chairman would like to have a new membership
form designed. We are looking into it.
All business was concluded and the meeting was adjourned at 7:35 PM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BANQUET REMINDER

The annual Banquet will be held at the Camelot, in Bridgeport, PA, on
February 12th, at 6:30 PM. Ron Strobel will present "Going Up IV," a
videotape of our 2001 Fun Fly. Numerous awards will be given out to
unsuspecting members, and of course you will enjoy a great variety of food,
all for the small fee of $15 per couple.

Reservations must be made by February 1st. Treasurer Carl Sutton can be
contacted by e-mail at suttc@aol.com or by phone at 610-454-7393. Come on
out and join the fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLUB CALENDAR

Friday, February 1st -
Reservations and money due for Awards Banquet.

Tuesday, February 12th -
Awards Banquet - Camelot, 425 Mill Street, Bridgeport, PA, 6:30 to 10:30
PM. Video presentation by Ron Strobel. Presentation of awards. Cost is
$15.00 per couple and $7.50 for singles. No general meeting at church.

Saturday, February 23rd -
Bus trip to WRAM Show in New York, 8:30 AM to 7:30 PM. Cost: $40, due by
February 12th.

Tuesday, March 12th -
General membership meeting at church at 8:00 PM. Instruction night - sign
up for instruction, meet your instructor. Learn what is needed to "solo."
Show-N-Tell. Raffle. Membership renewal deadline.


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Michael Myers, Webmaster


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