Mew Gull
By Chuck Felton
The “Holy Grail” of British air racing makes a perfect C/L Sport Scale subject.
PHOTOGRAPHY: CHUCK FELTON T 52
he Percival Mew Gull was a British racing aircraft of the 1930s. It was a small, single-engine, single-seat, low-wing monoplane of wooden con-
struction, normally powered by a six-cylin- der de Havilland Gypsy Six piston engine. During its racing career it set many records and was considered a significant design. A modern-day observer has characterized the Mew Gull as “the Holy Grail of British air racing”. During the second half of the 1930s, Mew Gulls were dominant in air-racing in the UK and consistently recorded the fastest times until the outbreak of war stopped all civilian flying in late 1939. The Mew Gull was not an ideal aircraft for
a long-distance record flight. The cockpit was extremely cramped, being only about two feet wide, and just high enough to clear the pilot’s head. Nonetheless, Alex Henshaw flew the Mew Gull G-AEXF to first place in
the 1938 King’s Cup Race with his fastest speed in excess of 270 mph. At sea level it was faster than a Hawker Hurricane. The Mew Gull model presented here is
simple in construction and inexpensive as it uses ¹⁄₈-inch corrugated cardboard as the primary building material, which greatly re- duces both building time and cost. The de- sign makes use of cardboard’s unique fea- tures in that it can be used in large sections and folded. For instance, each wing panel is built of a single piece of cardboard scored and folded at the leading edge with card- board ribs and a single spar. The tail sur- faces and fuselage are primarily cardboard with little internal bracing required. The re- sult is a low cost fast building model that has good scale like appearance and can take plenty of punishment at the flying field. Cardboard varies in weight, but any ¹⁄₈- inch corrugated cardboard will do. Sources
of this material include box manufacturers and local shopping centers where you can find stacks of discarded boxes. Look for card- board with brown paper on one side and a white finished Kraft paper on the other side. The white paper on the outside of the mod- el results in a smoother finish and neater appearance. The method of folding the card- board and the use of gummed paper tape to seal the joints and exposed corrugations is explained in the construction hints. The model has a wingspan of 60 inches
and a length of 51³⁄₄ inches. The bottom of the airfoil is flat, with a curved upper sur- face, due to the scoring and folding tech- nique employed. Engines of .40 to .50 size can be used. My model is powered by a .40 engine and has a fully fueled flying weight of 78 ounces. This weight combined with the 612 square inch wing area results in a wing loading of 18.4 ounces/square foot.
JANUARY 2012
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