Evolution of the Flight Streak

I am interested in the evolution of the Flight Streak and Peacemaker. Like what was first and what year and are they the same just scaled up or down? I do have a FS plan but can't read the date.
Mal

LAST EDITED ON May-02-04 AT 07:56 PM (CDT)
 
Flite Streak came first in around 1955-56. The Peacemaker was designed for the UK market and published in Aeromodeller in 1958. It belongs to the FS family but is really not the same airplane.- it is more like a cousin.
The very first FS had a longer nose than the finalized version, but GMA felt this might be too weak so he either moved the wing forward a bit or chopped some off- don't recall now what he said he did and exactly why. Brodak kit FS is pretty near the way he originally intended the design to be as I understood what he said.
The full fuselage Peacemaker is again a different airplane and falls in date between the FS and the British Profile PM.

JAK

GMA said that he had a nose shaking with the original prototype, decided it was a harmonic issue, and modified the plans for the big FS by cutting an inch off the nose, just before he sent the plans off to Sid Axelrod. The first Fox Combat Special was even more of a shaker than the .35 Stunt, and that was the engine it was designed around. It didn't sound like there was a lot of R&D, just design it, build a prototype, fly it, and kit it. TF adapted the shaped LE & TE, because they had new machinery that could do it, high tech at the time. GMA was not happy about that, due to increased weight. I'm guessing that TF requested a sport/stunt/combat profile design from GMA (to compete with the Ringmaster?), and that's what he came up with. Overkill! Steve

LAST EDITED ON May-03-04 AT 01:02 PM (CDT)
 
>GMA said that he had a nose shaking with the original prototype, decided it was a
>harmonic issue, and modified the plans for the big FS by cutting an inch off the nose,
>just before he sent the plans off to Sid Axelrod. The first Fox Combat Special
>was even more of a shaker than the .35 Stunt, and that was the engine it was designed
>around. It didn't sound like there was a lot of R&D, just design it, build a prototype,
>fly it, and kit it.

That is the story just the way that George told it. He did habitually refer to the particular Fox 35 as a "Black Head" engine, and when he was told that the summer of the first Streaks was about a year ahead of the black head engine's release, decided he must've had prototypes of the second model to use.

Top Flite had a line of Half-A kits and a couple of all balsa trainers, but no "competition" models of any sort, and not sport models for the mid-range glow engines. The idea for what the Streak needed to be was proposed rather shortly after Sid and George worked out the production details for the Nobler, and the smaller ones were also discussed that early.

The Nobler was being released with some type of (1957) Nats-related publicity tie-in and after the first two Streaks were done and a plan submitted to TF, Sid insisted that George enter Combat at the Nats in 1957 with one. George had SELDOM flown that event, although a prior design of his called the Foxy, with a resemblance (in profile) to the Nobler was suggested as a combat plane, and I'm relatively sure he told me he did enter a few combat contests with that one. Thanks to Elwyn for the reminder on its name. The big Streak kit was available in the fall of 1957, I feel certain.

The better looking of the two prototypes was destroyed in a collision.

I think that the Baby and the Junior were available as kits within the first couple of months of 1958. The Combat Streak was the final type, and I think it dated from 1960. The Peacemaker design was copied by a number of UK kit makers and renamed, but those were still Peacemakers. I'm not sure that the Aeromodeller version was ever kitted under its own name anywhere. The larger one for the US market was published about 1959 or 1960, and kitted a year or so later, but GMA truly HATED the kit that Sid made out of that one.

As Steve pointed out, he wasn't strongly impressed with the fancy LE & TE parts that Axelrod substituted for the multi-piece arrangement he had designed, but nowhere near like his reaction to the Peacemaker.

.

Kiwi

Other tidbits that I recall from emails from GMA...he did the APS Peacemaker design in exchange for an Oliver Tiger 2.5, but he didn't have the engine before the airplane was designed. He said it became apparent to him later, that it was too small for the Oly. That Oliver was used to power the prototype MAN Peacemaker. After testing in a full sized Flite Streak, the article claimed it yanked it around like a .29. Fox .29, no doubt. I recall the MAN Peacemaker as being '58. A lovely design, I fell in love with it. George also said his favorite power for the big FS was a PAW .19 (TBR, I would expect). Steve

"George had SELDOM flown that event, although a prior design of his with a resemblance (in profile) to the Nobler was suggested as a combat plane. I've forgotten its name. "
Must have been this one-

Yep Elwyn, that's the one. GMA's old Foxy. I scaled down and built a 15 size version of this plane in 1955/Torpedo .15 Green Head...and used it to learn most of the maneuvers in the stunt pattern of the day. I was 14 years old and a sophomore in High School....by the way, where did all those years go? Anyway, it had a 32 inch wingspan as compared to the 36 inch span on the .35 sized version. Great little plane.........it flew very well..............T.Durrill

Note GMA's "pinch corner" tank shown on the plan.

J

LAST EDITED ON May-03-04 AT 12:36 PM (CDT)
 
The summer of 1956 the Ruston HobbyHawks of Ruston, La. went to a contest in Longview, Tx and I was one of'em (13 yrs old). George flew his Nobler(clockwise) to win Open and did a lot of maneuvers windsailing after the engine quit. Then he defeated everyone there in Open Combat with his soon-to-be kitted Flitestreak- single wheel for landing-the new "Combat Fox" for power.(Didn't have the Black head yet). Later he strung up a set of lines on the FS and did a "pull test" for a crowd of flyers- until a line failed- to show the strength of the control system, I suppose. The HobbyHawks returned to Louisiana and at least one of them was changed forever! About 40 years later, thanks to Mike Keville's Vintage Stunt Championships, I was able to meet George and we became friends. Changed forever again! Best regards,

>The summer of 1956 the Ruston HobbyHawks of Ruston, La. went
>to a contest in Longview, Tx and I was one of'em (13 yrs
>old). George flew his Nobler(clockwise) to win Open and did
>a lot of maneuvers windsailing after the engine quit. Then
>he defeated everyone there in Open Combat with his
>soon-to-be kitted Flitestreak- single wheel for landing-the
>new "Combat Fox" for power.(Didn't have the Black head yet).
>Later he strung up a set of lines on the FS and did a "pull
>test" for a crowd of flyers- until a line failed- to show
>the strength of the control system, I suppose. The
>HobbyHawks returned to Louisiana and at least one of them
>was changed forever! About 40 years later, thanks to Mike
>Keville's Vintage Stunt Championships, I was able to meet
>George and we became friends. Changed forever again! Best
>regards,

I never did get the chance to know GMA on a level many of you did, but from my contact with him, he ALWAYS treated me with respect and NEVER once like I was a fool or an inferior, even though I am just a "sport flier". He was always helpful and friendly and very generous- I think that speaks well of a man and his life.

Jake

Thanks to those who replied with some most valued reading. I also never knew GMA but by a fluke met him here in OZ just after I started CL. He came to our field and gave a talk on stunt engines at the fire station in the city. He left quite an impression and it's great to see his models are as popular as ever.
Mal