1938 Design Flies Once more! – Mannequin Airplane Information

Revealed within the June, 1938 subject of Mannequin Airplane Information, Herbert Okay. Weiss’s sub-Peanut-scale Nieuport 161 is a free-flight copy of the prototype French fighter produced in 1935. The design is receiving renewed curiosity due to its inclusion within the Flying Aces Membership (flyingacesclub.com) January 2023 publication. Constructed by publication editor Michael Kelly, the brand new mannequin differs from the plan with a detachable nostril block, a extra ahead rubber motor peg to assist with stability, and extra tissue anchors to make overlaying simpler. The Nieuport is roofed with silver Esaki tissue with inkjet-printed tissue markings; it weighs 8.9 grams ready-to-fly with a 1.8g rubber motor. Kelly writes that it was a quick construct, taking only a week from chopping the primary items to its first flight.
He provides, “Flight trimming went fairly easily. It flies surprisingly properly outside for such a tiny plane; by the top of the primary flying day it was giving dependable 40 to 50 second flights.”
The Nieuport is the primary in a sequence of Weiss’s free-flight designs revealed in Mannequin Airplane Information that shall be featured in future Flying Ace Membership newsletters.