Lightning Bug

Lightning Bug
A radio control sport model designed for electric power with a wingspan of 27 inches.

Overview
Bill Winter was a renowned model designer and publisher, whose work graced popular model magazines from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Lightning Bug was featured in the July 1961 issue of Model Airplane News. Initially powered by the impressive Cox .010 engine, it utilized rudder control via an escapement system.

The Lightning Bug presented here is a compact park flyer that is simple, durable, and quick to construct. It boasts the popular 1811 2000 kV outrunner motor, an ideal match when paired with a 300 mAh 2S LiPo battery and a GWS 5043 prop (125 mm x 110 mm). A small 6 Amp brushless ESC, a tiny receiver, and two 5 g servos manage the rudder, elevator, and throttle controls.

Construction Steps
Easy to Build: Start your construction with the wing. Use a steel straight edge and a sharp scalpel knife to cut the leading and trailing edges from 1/16 balsa sheet. Acquire or cut 1/8 square balsa for the spars and 1/4 in square balsa for the leading edge, ensuring to cut all components to the appropriate lengths.

Wing Ribs: Photocopy the wing rib, glue the copy onto a cardboard cereal box, and cut out a slightly oversize rib template. From this template, cut 18 ribs out of the 1/16" balsa sheet.
Shaping: Stack the ribs evenly and pin them from both sides. Sand them to the shape of the rib based on the plan, using a sanding stick or rigid block. This is known as the sandwich method.
Spars Notches: Mark the spar locations and carefully cut notches with a razor saw or file in the top and bottom of the rib stack to fit your 1/8 square balsa spars, ensuring the upper and lower spars remain parallel.
Cutting Ribs: For the 1/16 x 1/2 in leading edge and the 1/16 x 3/4 in trailing edges, saw only the vertical kerfs. Unpin the ribs, then make horizontal cuts using a scalpel knife for each rib or stacks of three or four ribs at a time. This process takes just a few minutes to complete a set of ribs.
With these straightforward steps, the Lightning Bug is an enjoyable project that promises a rewarding flying experience.