FIREBALL XL5 - A FLYING MODEL!!By Al FootPhotos by Al Foot
I’ve been a life-long Fireball XL5 enthusiast, and have been reliving
my childhood by watching all of the episodes on the Carlton DVD
collection. Even now, there are some aspects that are ahead of this time,
let alone the 1960’s when the originals were screened.
As you can imagine, there had to be a few compromises in the design to ensure that she would fly, these being mainly in the wing, fuselage and fin sections (yes I know that’s basically everything!!). I made the fuselage as a flat plate side profile and a flat plate top/bottom profile so that the assembled cross section was, well… a cross!!
I tried to remain reasonably faithful to the shape, but please bear in mind that this is the prototype, and I did not want to invest too much time and effort. Similarly, the wings, fins and Fireball Junior fins were all flat plates.
I won’t bore you all with the thinking processes that I went through before attempting to fly Fireball - suffice to say that the balance point of the machine needed to be right or else she would be uncontrollable. Similarly, the aerodynamic means of controlling Fireball had to be derived since I would not be able to use the thrusters as per the original!!
Fireball XL5 has now done about 10 flights, and I’m now
getting used to the somewhat unusual flying characteristics. (For those
that fly radio-controlled aircraft, if you imagine a “normal” aircraft but
with the fin at the front instead of the back you will not be far from
understanding how Fireball XL5 flies!! ). I hope you agree that she looks
great in the video clips, and it was certainly worth the effort!! She
certainly causes a stir every time that I take her up to the
airfield.
Now that I know that she flies, I intend to add a few more details, and I might even build another!!
I hope that you enjoy my flying model of Fireball XL5.
Best regards,
Al Foot
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Technical details
Length 36 inches | ||||||
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Here are the movies of the third and fourth flights, plus a movie of a November 2005 flight.
VISIT THE FIREBALL XL5 STORIES PAGE
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