Sterling Models Website

I recently came across this on the web, thought some of
you may enjoy it.
Appreciation based website, knowing the Sterling factory to be long gone.

http://home.mindspring.com/~jeff.coons/vintagesterlingmodels/

Anyone having plans, patterns, decals and the like should get them into this site's archives. There are pages of the things needed and how-to instructions.

This is an interesting site as no one has picked up the old Sterling line, and I have only now have been able to see the entire catalogue from different decades.

I have a Sterling Flying Fool bi-plane, aged, split silk and all...built in 1964...I will try to get them a copy of the plans, although mine are pretty shot...may have been used as a cutting board and paint booth, better than nothing...I do not think there are any usefull dimensions on the plans as they are three dimensional building diagrams, like the old Goldberg plans...anything to stop the scratch builders!

My real interest was the PZL, Polish Fighter Sterling kit...saw the add somewhere circa 1960-65, never could find it again till I saw the site...it is the V-12 version, not the radial...very distinctive gull-wing monuted atop the fuselage.

A friend on mines Dad flew PZL's during the inital Nazi invasion of Poland...escaped and flew for the RAF for the rest of the war. Ended up as a corporate pilot for Beech, and engineer for Convair in San Diego.

A real pleasure to see it again after all these years...it DID exist!

If I can ever get the plans, (actually templates, I think the plans will be useless if they are drawn like the Flyng Fool plans), I would love to build one.

Got to dig up the Fool plans to see!

I thought Estes bought out Sterling as well as Cox engines.

Ty, of course, is right, Pete.

But Estes picked up only a few kits. Three Ringmaster variations are the ones I know of. Currell

Jaco: Thanks for providing the Sterling site. There was another one a few years ago, but I lost track of it.

Just randomly going through it, I caught a mistake. Like: Two 35s are OK for the P-38?!

Great site, though...

The Sterling "Polish Fighter" is a rendition of the original PZL P-1 that appeared at the Paris Salon at the dawn of the '30s. It created a sensation. The Polish airforce was the first in the world to be completely equipped with all-metal monoplane fighters but sadly, a decade later they were obsolete however that in no way diminishes the record of the courage and skill of their pilots who did their best against the German blitz. Almost all but the initial tiny handful of prototypes had radial engines rather than inline.
The final P.24 version was for export only, and was quite popular. Some served the Turkish airforce as trainers into the late 1940s.

Jake

We had one of those Sterling kitted "Polish Fighters" in our family for many years. I think it was my oldest brother that built it, during his last years in high school. The O&R .33 glow did a fair job of flying it, tho more power would have helped. It was heavy, flew about like a racer, but did nice takeoffs and landings, if that's good enough. Scratchbuilt would be way better, molded parts, etc. Pretty airplane. I'd think the John Pond Plans Service would be a likely place to find plans, if AMA ever gets it back up. Otherwise, look for a kit on the Bay, make patterns and draw up a set of real plans. Steve

Guys,

Thanks for your response on this rather esoteric post about a rare and beautiful airplane, the PZL P-1, "Polish fighter".

As a Sterling kit it is pretty much a lead sled...but so is the old Flying Fool biplane!

I did several google searches over the last year or two and found a few historical sites with pictures of the PZL P-1 as a radial, powered I think by a British Jupiter? radial and one or two protoypes with a V-12...but I do not remember which ...certainly not the early Allison, or the old Liberty...maybe it was a Hispano V-8...I dunno...any historians out there with more good information???

Anyway the V-12 version is sleek, although the radial version has that pugnacious RATA I-16 look...like the Hall Bull-Dog racer.

A very romantic design for me...having known the son of someone who flew one in those weeks of the initial Nazi invasion is really poignant.

I got to read his Dad's log book...flying Bristol Blenheims for the RAF on shipping raids in Norwegian fjords...what a privelge to see that!

Have seen the Cleveland Models web site has a set of PZL plans in various wingspans...and every other scale model you can think of!

I just ordered a set of PZL plans, from...

www.ModelAirplanePlans.net/index.html

These are copies of who knows what ??...if its the Sterling plans, there is really nothing there to build off of...but very nice isometric 3-d views with instructions.

The web site is extensive, run by one Allen Hunt...

It has been three or four weeks weeks since I sent my check...the bad news, no response...the GOOD news, the check is still uncashed, so he may be waiting to accumulate enough orders to hit the Kinko's copy shop for an afternoon of printing out orders, we will see!

OH...this is NOT Allan Hahn, he runs a great site called "the Plans Page"...with reprints of vintage MAN, Airtrails, etc articles form the 30's/40's...His plans are all on pdf files...mostly vintage f/f, and a real treat regardless of what you build.

Saw a great Corsair stunt model here in LA...wonder if the PZL has a possiblilty as a V powered long nose version?

The PZL is pretty short coupled, but would be very unusual!

LAST EDITED ON Feb-19-04 AT 08:12 AM (CDT)
 
Hispano-Suiza, 600 hp.
The first P.6 prototype (Bristol Jupiter radial) was the one that was exibited at the 1930 Paris Salon. It was also sent to the USA and appeared at the 1931 Clevland air races, where it created a highly favorable impression.

Jake

I was a Sterling Models fan in the 50s and 60s. I built three Flying Fools in those days. The third one was converted to R/C (sorry!) with a .15 engine and 4 channel radio. The first flight went great until a new battery pack died. The plane didn`t suffer any damage. I got out of R/C after a second new battery pack died that day. I had the Flying Fool hanging from my garage door opener for 5 years. As I was moving in 1977, a neighborhood kid asked me if he could have it. He`d been admiring it for years. I gave it to him (no radio stuff in it).
I liked their planes, and am sorry they aren`t around anymore.

Gary

Mike LauermanI for another was extatic to see the site, know better but still love the Sterling line. I have a Fool nearly finished, with some stringers on the bottom to 'fair it out' a little nicer, plus a major diet, Fox .35.
Mr. Mulligan is next, (on the Sterling assembly line, which is separate from my main line) with very lightweight balsa, McCoy .19, Yeah, Sterling blows my skirt up....

The Monocoupe was the first ever Sterling kit. I had a very early issue one once that had beautiful wood in it- some of the best kit wood I have ever seen. I sold it a few years ago to Dave Kingman (he had some articles published in MAN and AAM in the '70s) in Florida for $25 (what I paid for it) because he had been wanting one for years and was getting ready to retire (at the time). I figured it was better off in his hands. It was a really nice kit, that one.

Jake

The flying fool was my first bipe and the spad my 2nd. now looking if i still have the plans, as i traced all the parts as i was building as kids do.
I rebuild my pt17 into a .09 r/c and still have. All the rest that i still have are r/c.
Was my 1/2A mombo a sterling? cant rem.
Roger

I guess I will have to build my Flying Fool kit.