Blue Ridge Dart Rubber Model

Recently someone had sent me a model rubber powered model airplane kit known as the Blue Ridge Dart.  This is a simple all-sheet balsa airplane that had the surfaces already cut out of very nice balsa. To me the wingspan appeared rather short for the length of the fuselage but no doubt that could contribute to the stability of the flight.

Blue Ridge Dart in Flight

Total build time for the plane was probably less than 30 minutes. The moveable wing mount feature was not used by me; instead I pinned the wing on for test flights and then glued the wing to the fuselage. First flights were with reduced winds in front of my house on Christmas day. Later in the day I flew in a larger field with the wing glued on, a small amount of clay was needed for nose weight. I later removed weight towards the tail so hopefully the clay will not be needed.

Test Flight With Wing Pinned On 

With a modest number of turns using a winder the airplane flew in a nice right pattern.  After the climb the plane returned smoothly to level flight and flew slower than I would have expected. As the rubber turns wound down the glide was fairly flat also unlike many small models that head down in a steep spiral.

Now for the bad news, I do not believe this kit is currently available, the Pal Model Products website indicates they are busy creating kits.  http://palmodelproducts.com/ There was another kit sold by this company known as the Blue Ridge Special, I built a similar model that I reviewed in this article: Rigid Construction for a Simple Rubber Model.

Nice Cruise

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com