Build plans and photos for Bob Aberle's Live Wire Cruiser.
Author, Bob Aberle, holding his reduced size, electic powered "Live Wire Cruiser". The original was designed and kitted by the late Hal DeBolt back in 1954. |
The new Live Wire Cruiser has only 150 square inches of wing area and weighs, with wheels, only 7.7 ounces ready to fly. |
The Live Wire Cruiser in flight is capable of flight times up to approx. 20 minutes on a charge. |
The wheels may be removed and twin floats substituted so that the Live Wire Cruiser can take off and land on water. |
This is Bob's friend and mentor, the late Don Martin holding his full size Live Wire Cruiser. Bob took this photo in 1955 at the age of 17. Believe it or not this 775 sq.in. aircraft, weighing almost 5 pounds, was powered only by a K&B .19 glow engine. It had rudder control only. |
Wing construction parts and material are show in this photo. Flat bottom airfoil makes rib cutting an easy job. |
Both wing panel ready to be joined. A single plywood brace (WB-1) is all that is necessary. Use 5-minute epoxy for this joint. |
The wing tip detail. It is made from a single piece of 1/16-inch balsa. The top surface is flat. Serveral pieces of 1/8 square balse brace this wing tip assembly. |
A closer look at the single plywood wing joiner/brace. |
The wing panels now joined and ready for covering. |
The two fuselage sides are cut from 1/16-inch balsa. The stab and vertical fin at the top of the photo are also made from 1/16-inch balsa. |
The 1/16 X 1/4 inch balsa stiffeners have now been added to both fuselage sides prior to assembly. |
The fuselage is constructed on top of the plan view. Note the use of the Aero Craft Ltd. support triangles. This makes sure the two sides are perfectly aligned. |
A piece of 1/4 inch balsa covers the forward fuselage top between the firewall and the wing leading edge. The cut out is for the battery compartment, which is accessed from the top. |
The AXI-2204/54 brushless outrunner motor is mounted to the 18 ince plywood firewall with two 2-56 machine screws and "T" nuts. |
The upper rear portion of the fuselage is essentially an open structure that gets covered. The top read is totally covered with 1/16 balsa to accept the vertical fin and rudder. |
The front windshield is fashion from 1/2 inch soft balsa that is carved and sanded to shape. This is more practical than the original windshield. |
Here a 3 cell FMA Rev Lectric 750 mAh Li-Poly pack is being test fit in the battery compartment. This size pack should only be used for high performance by an experienced pilot. |
The underside of the battery box that is fashioned from 1/16 inch balsa. Note how the front landing gear wire strut is epoxied in position. |
A better shot showing the forward landing gear strut mounted in position and the wheels attached with collars. |
A 1/16 X 1/4 inch length of plywood is inserted into the vertical fin to stiffen it and to strengthen the attachment to the upper, rear portion of the fuselage. |
The fully assembled CRUISER structure prior to covering with Coverite MICROLITE iron-on covering material. |
Here the motor and firewall are mounted. Bob painted the inside of the battery compartment, which was easier than using covering material. |
The underside of the forward fuselage. You can see the three-wire cable coming from the motor to the ESC, which is tucked into one side and the side of the battery compartment. The servo type cable exiting the ESC goes back into the radio compartment. The two battery wires go up an exit out the top, next to the battery compartment opening. |
The radio compartment looking from the top with the wing removed. The receiver mounts with double sided tape to a piece of 1/16 balsa by the leading edge. The two servos are taped to either fuselage side about at the mid wing position. |
The vertical fin and rudder (which has been hinged with tape) is covered and then mounted to the rear fuselage top. |
The stab/elevators are first covered. Then the elevators are joined with a piece of .032-inch diameter wire. |
The stab/elevators are now attached to the lower rear fuselage. |
The rudder control horn is located on the right side of the vertical fin. Control rod wire is .025-inch diameter that is run inside Stevens Aero Models .078 Teflon tubing. |
The opposite (left) side showing the elevator control horn location on the upper side of the surface. |
The covered and completed LIVE WIRE CRUISER weighing just 7.7 ounces ready to fly with wheels. |
AMA license number decal on the wing was made by Callie Graphics. Look for details in the text. These are vinyl letter/numbers, which go nicely on iron-on covering material. |
These four 1/8 plywood tabs and the DuBro 3/32 inch wheel collars are used to mount the two foam floats to the CRUISER. |
Here one of the plywood tabs is inserted into a slot cut in the top of the foam float. 5-minute epoxy is used for extra strength. |
All four tabs are cemented in place on the foam floats. |
The wire struts are anchored to the plywood tabs with the DuBro 3/32 inch wheel collars. This makes is easy to remove the floats and go back to the wheels. |
The rear .078 diameter wire strut is anchored to a piece of 1/8 X ¼ spruce on the bottom of the fuselage. Use two No. 2 sheet metal screws and some tabs made from thin scraps of brass. |
Both floats are mounted in place and ready for water flying. Total weight now with the floats is only 8.8 ounces! |
The underside of the CRUISER showing how the two strut wires attach both foam floats to the lower side of the fuselage. No cross bracing wires are necessary. |
A float test in a neighbors pool prior to heading to the lake. These floats can handle up to 12 ounce models with 32 inch wing spans. |
The real proof is that the rear of the float should be above the water. If you submerge the rear float tip and let go, the float should pop right back up out of the water. It did! |
A front view of the twin floats showing perfect alignment. |
Tom Hunt, Neat Fair founder and director, FLY-RC columnist and member of the AMA Hall of Fame, hand launches the CRUISER at the start of a series of flight shots with the wheels mounted in place. |
These land based flight photos were taken by AMA District_II AVP, Ray Juschkus, who was a fellow LI Gas Monkeys club member with Bob Aberle back in 1951 (58 years ago!).
These are three flights shots taken at Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island, NY, with Tom Hunt at the controls and Bob Aberle on the camera. During the summer months this beach is very popular during daytime hours. As a result these few photos had to be taken before 6:00 AM. The light level was still very low, even flash couldn’t produce a good photo. But the bottom line is the CRUISER flies equally well off water!
