Dumas Mustang

I have been offered an old kit for a Dumas Mustang, 48" span. I have never heard of the kit, I assume it is American, does anyone have any info?

>I have been offered an old kit for a Dumas Mustang, 48"
>span. I have never heard of the kit, I assume it is
>American, does anyone have any info?

It's a carry-on of the old Veco kit designed by Hi Johnson back in the '50s. When Dumas (the boat people) bought the Veco line, they carried on making the kits for a while and offered a handful of their own before folding the tent sometime in the '70s. The wood and all in these was nothing to write home about- if by "offered" you mean someone gives it to you- yeah, take it and sell it on BLEEPbay and buy a new decent kit. I THINK Larry Richards makes one of this '51 but I am not sure at the moment.

Jake

This is the geneology...

1. Veco, indian-themed boxes (although the Mustang missed this period)

2. Veco, checkerboard box (the most familiar of the four stages mentioned here)

3. Dumas, same box style

4. Aero Engineering, same box style

This kit can bring low three figures on ebay, and as such is a desirable collectible. A decent flyer, too, if you decide to build. As jake mentions, it could be lighter, and some wood substitution would not hurt.

If you are buying the kit, anything $50 or less is an excellent deal.

LAST EDITED ON May-06-04 AT 03:43 PM (CDT)
 
> ... is a desirable collectible. A decent flyer, too, if you decide to build. As jake
>mentions, it could be lighter, and some wood substitution would not hurt.
>
One serious "defect", if you want to call it that, is that similar to many older kits, and particularly to Hi Johnson's designs, the airfoil is quite slim. This reduces available lift, so the plane is far more sensitive to gaining weight than something with even as thick of a wing as a Nobler.

(Added in edit later: .. 'BUT!' This time I overlooked mentioning the obvious. Quite similar to many "Mustangs", it's true that neither one of Hi Johnson's kitted ones looked very scale-like (the KenHi kit was very similar). Neither did Claire Seiverling's stunter owe much to scale, nor did countless others do so. Somehow, however, Jake knew I was THINKING about that, whether I said so this time or not. Now, I need to learn how he did that!)

.

Kiwi

LAST EDITED ON May-06-04 AT 03:29 PM (CDT)
 
>> ... is a desirable collectible. A decent flyer, too, if you decide to build.
>>As jake mentions, it could be lighter, and some wood substitution would not hurt.
>>
>One serious "defect", if you want to call it that, is that
>similar to many older kits, and particularly to Hi Johnson's
>designs, the airfoil is quite slim. This reduces available
>lift, so the plane is far more sensitive to gaining weight
>than something with even as thick of a wing as a Nobler.
>
>.
>
>Kiwi
>
>**
\
Well, it SORTA looks like a Mustang! Hi's Stuka was a LOT prettier!

Jake

Jake, by "folding the tent" I assume you mean their control line planes? Dumas is still alive and makes laser cut kits for rubber and electric ower free flight, 24" plus. I finished a Dumas "Mr. Mulligan" last year for rubber powered scale free flight.

>Jake, by "folding the tent" I assume you mean their control
>line planes? Dumas is still alive and makes laser cut kits
>for rubber and electric ower free flight, 24" plus. I
>finished a Dumas "Mr. Mulligan" last year for rubber powered
>scale free flight.

Affirmative.
I think they still field floatie boaties too. As a sidebar, their very first C/L kit came along back in the late '50s: the "Diamond" a diamond airfoil Combat BLEEP wing that few miss today.

Jake

I'm flying one right now that was built about 20 years ago. It did not do to well with a 35 but after stuffing on old Fow 40 Stunt engine in, it is alot of fun. The thin wing requires a bit more speed. It's not a great stunt plane by any means, but it's a good fun flyer and will do most anything you want it to. Build it light. With some attention to finish it can look allot like a Mustang. Remember it's an F-51, not a P-51 so the straight leading edge is actually scale.

I think you mean it looks like an F-51H. It had the straight(er) leading edge and a deep belly with a tall fin and rudder. The F-51D was the same as a P-51D, just the designation changed.

That Veco/Dumas Mustang is way small on wing area too, at 408 square inches. Bobby Hunt told me not to build one for VSC, there are many other designs out there to chose from that fly much better.

I thought the whole point of flying at VSC was to fly vintage airplanes. From the get go a lot of them don't fly very well, so if you're looking for scores why not build the better mousetrap and fly in a real PA contest.