Marsh Harrier

Construction of the Rohnbussard glider began two years ago, thanks to Stéphane from GAM Yverdon. Stéphane, a fan of “vintage” gliders, suggested that I try tow-in gliding and flying gliders. So I set up a 1.70-meter PC6 for towing, which I really enjoyed, and we had a lot of fun. One thing led to another, and we eventually decided to “think bigger.” The idea to build a Bussard came quickly; I placed the order at the end of 2017, and the kit arrived a bit late, at the end of January 2018. So, I stepped up the pace to be able to fly it this year.

Before starting construction, I did some research on the Rohnbussard to find photos and information about its specifications, since the plans for it are very basic. One of the major modifications was to replicate the original’s wing attachment system and then devise a way to secure it to the fuselage. Once that was done, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

The model doesn’t come with much explanation—in fact, there are no assembly instructions

(!) and, furthermore, the kit contained only fuselage spars and wing ribs: quite sparse. For a “short kit,” this was a very short kit indeed! I still need to mount the servos in the wings and fuselage. To make things easier, I installed aluminum control horns for the control surfaces. I had to rework some parts, build a wing assembly system, install the servos, and mount a circuit board in the fuselage. The onboard electronics are very simple: a voltage regulator, a 3S LiPo battery, three

servos, and a receiver. To adjust the CG, I needed 2 kg of lead just behind the first fuselage spar, and even so, the glider weighs 7 kg 800 in flight configuration with a wingspan of 4767 mm.

It took me about 400 hours of work to build this beautiful 1:3-scale model, the original of which made its first flight in 1933.

Jean-Luc Zogg