Ringmaster "Sportster"

Is it possible to find plans/drawings/information on the Sterling Ringmaster Sportster, Kit #S-22?? It's a box fuselage tricycle geared design that looks like a cross between a Ringmaster S-1 and a Ryan Navion. I've never seen an actual speciman - perhaps it was only an advertisers dream.
Mild Bill

> Is it possible to find plans/drawings/information on
>the Sterling Ringmaster Sportster, Kit #S-22?? It's a box
>fuselage tricycle geared design that looks like a cross
>between a Ringmaster S-1 and a Ryan Navion. I've never
>seen an actual speciman - perhaps it was only an advertisers
>dream.
> Mild Bill

The plane actually did exist, although the old timers,myself excluded, have very little good to say about it. In truth it was a strange bird in the Ringmaster stable. The fuselage and tail surfaces looked nothing like a Ringmaster,the trike gear was also looked askance at, and it really was just too heavy, worse then the Super Ringmaster if you can believe that.
Still I did get one in my youth, what do the young know eh, it flew, I have pleasent memories of it. Heck it even had a Mccoy 35 that ran really well. Who says that life is all bad. I wouldn't mind building another but really light and see if it really can perform.
Dennis

You don't see them at the flying field anymore (or hardly ever), but a couple of years ago, on the Midwest Winter Swap Meet circuit, I saw either a built Sportster or Jr. Flash, or a kit of either for sale, for a string of successive meets.

The Sportster is, indeed, a rather unattractive model. Some don't like its aforementioned cousin much either, the Ringmaster Jr Flash. It used a wing identical to the Ringmaster Jr profile. I always believed that making the canopy a kind of "greenhouse" (as opposed to the jet style) would make it look better. You would turtle deck the back. Think of this modified Flash as a Jr. Super Ring. of sorts.

Sterling got great product extension out of the Ringmaster name, with no less than 13 CL kits. And a few actually looked something like the original.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-05-04 AT 00:14 AM (CDT)
 
If you will go to the classified section and look down to the listings for "canopies" you will se a posting by Randy Ryan that shows a partial picture of the Ringmaster Sportster. The canopy is one that I made for him. The kit was produced and does occasionally appear on Ebay. Someone has plans or else several kits came without canopies. If you can get the plans I have canopies for them.

It is interesting that while alot of people bad mouth this plane it never fails to generate big bucks on Da Bay. The last one I saw on there went for over $200. Crazy! I bought my kit from a Meca swap meet for $25. Don't intend to build it, just another one on the shelf. The Ringmaster Jr Flash I got off the Da Bay for $35 was still in the shrink wrap. Shelf item as well.

Bill

Any chance of purchasing a copy of the mini-plans that I presume Sterling included in the Sportster kit? Even without "actual" plans it should be possible to extrapolate something pretty close. . .

Mild Bill [email protected]

Mild Bill,
You are in luck. A Sterling Sportster lives not more than 5 miles from your home. Your fellow Chicagoland Circle Cutter club member (me) actually has 2 Sportsters. I built one in 1968 while stationed in Germany. I've attached a picture of it (please be gentle in your criticism, after all it is over 35 years old). I also have another very ratty example that I bought 2nd hand. I will look and see if I can find the "mini plans" that came in the kit box.
DennisV