Beardmore Inflexible
A unique, scale design that will equally impress on the judging table as well as on the flight line!
By Chuck Wenlock PHOTOGRAPHY: IRMA WENLOCK I 38
knew nothing of the Beardmore Inflex- ible’s history. In fact I had never heard the name Beardmore before that day at the Flying Aces Club Nationals in
Geneseo, New York. I was watching Eddie Novak as he walked out into the field to launch his Giant Scale model. The plane’s wing had a seventy-five inch span, a narrow chord and square tipped flying surfaces. Only the center of three engines on the mod- el was powered. Small propellers on the wing mounted nacelles spun freely in the light breeze. Eddie walked casually to his launching
spot on the field, smiling all the way and tossing comments over his shoulder to his fellow modelers. He held the twelve-inch propeller by one tip as he raised the airplane above shoulder height for the launch. The Inflexible left Eddie’s hands and be-
gan a gentle right turn as it climbed away. Seconds after the launch, the right wing strut detached from the wing and hung straight down from its fuselage connection. All who watched expected disaster, but there was none. Onlookers laughed as the Inflexible continued its remarkably stable flight. The Beardmore reached an excellent alti-
tude and began to level out at the end of the motor run. The smooth transition to free- wheeling glide was a wonderful sight to be- hold. Suddenly, the propeller and noseblock fell out of the nose of the model and dangled below at the limit of the expended rubber motor. The crowd gasped, then cheered as the In-
flexible continued its flight, undisturbed by the strut, rubber motor, noseblock and pro- peller hanging from its fuselage.
I should have asked Eddie for a copy of his Beardmore Inflexible plan right there on the spot, but I didn’t. Instead, I returned home to Las Vegas and built other models. Only later did the urge to build my own Beard- more set in. The one three-view I found was quite rudimentary, but adequate for my purpose. I settled on designing a model with a 50.5- inch wing span, counting the ailerons’ aero- dynamic balances. It had to be trans- portable, so I made the wings, rudder and stabilizer removable. Everything had to fit into a box. My goal was to fly the Beard- more Inflexible at the next Nationals at Geneseo.
Construction of the Inflexible is essential-
ly the same as any other rubber powered model. Although it’s big and it’s a scale mod- el, it remains easy to build.
MARCH 2012
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