Stinson SR5-E

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             by Ron Peterka, NASA no. 869

So you just got back from Top Gun and after looking at the fantastic models presented there, you thought.......with a little more effort some of those guys could have built or restored a real plane! Well someone did. Tom Laurie, a lifelong modeler since the thirties, and who had several of his free flight models printed in the Frank Zaic Yearbooks, spent ten long years restoring a classic 'straight wing' Stinson SR-5E to such a fine degree of construction that he was awarded "1984 EAA Grand Champion Antique" at Oshkosh against some of the finest antique aircraft ever presented for competition. And he never had a pilots license to fly his beauty. He had to find a qualified pilot to test fly and transport the SR-5E and himself to Oshkosh. Tom's cream and orange Stinson with its brown pin striping is now based at the San Diego Aerospace Museum, Gillespie Field Annex, where any modeler can get a close up look at every pristine detail of this great classic airplane. Tom passed away a few years ago and his wife donated the aircraft to the museum.

Founded in 1925 by aviation pioneer Eddie Stinson, the firm would soon be merged with the E.L.Cord Corporation and, shortly after the 1929 stock market crash, ultimately merged with the Convair Corporation. In 1949 Convair decided to get out of the personal airplane business and sold the division to Piper Aircraft, who later sold the rights and spare parts to Univair Corporation, which sold Stinson parts for a number of years. Throughout its years of operation Stinson's aircraft were noted for quality, roominess, and sumptuous interiors. They were not noted for high speed. Laurie's 1934 (N 14187) is no exception. How many modern aircraft have roll down side windows and a retractable rear view mirror allowing a view above and behind into this high wing aircraft's blind spot? Entry doors on both sides and a spacious luggage compartment with a built in courtesy light are standard equipment.

Some of the features of this airplane that might attract a serious scale modeler are the NACA 'bump' cowl, streamlined wheel pants, and moment arms that almost guarantee an easy handling model in the air and on the ground. Flaps, or 'speed arresters' as Stinson called them, make landings a slow speed ballet. The Vee shaped windshield is easily reproduced without complex molding.

With a 41 foot span and 80 inch wing chord, the wing area on even a smaller sized scale model should be enough to carry plenty of detail. A 1:4 scale version would span 123 inches, a 1:5 model 98.5 inches. At 98.5 inch span the wing area would be 1576 square inches, or just under 11 square feet. At about 15 lbs you would have a meager 21 to 22 oz/sq ft. A 1.2 four stroke would be plenty of power and would sound an awful lot like the real thing. How about scaling the model for a five cylinder radial?

For the really serious scratch builder, highly detailed drawings by W. A. Wylam are available for all of the 'straight' wing and 'gull' wing Stinsons. These drawings date back to the 60's and earlier and are classics in themselves. All the detail anyone could want for documentation for contest competition can be had. Coupled with the local access of an actual aircraft to copy, this should make a truly great R/C Scale model