AI's Flying Oddities No. 3
The Fauvel AV-10
By AI Backstrom

Charles Fauvel was one of the people inspired by the work of Arnoux and his plank type of tailIess airplanes. The airplanes of Fauvel mostly have had the wings upswept like the planks but they have featured large amounts of taper. ThIs taper was extreme in the early designs like the AV-1O. The AV-1O Is a product of the mld-thIrties and must be considered a satisfactory airplane as it received a standard certification in France and at one time held the altitude record for its weight class. This was during the days when the climb was made on power rather than wave soaring as has been used for many lightplane altitude records recently. I have no idea what happened to Fauvel or his airplane and sailplane development projects after the AV-1O, but he designed the very successful AV-36 sailplane rIght after WWII. Unfortunately, most of the information on the AV-1O seems to have been lost in the WWII era as it is very difficult to locate information on it. My model was laid out using dimensions for a wind tunnel model in an old NACA TN. I obtained some more information after the model was built from Emmanuel Fillion, a well known French model builder.

This has been one of the happy models that seem to improve in flying ability as it has gotten older. Ah, if we could all do that! The model construction Is straightforward and follows the earlier models of this series except that the wing is built up and tissue covered. The wing is flat. It Is easiest to build and cover the wing halves before gluing them together. The wing registration markings should be applied to the tissue before it is put on the structure. Only the top is covered. The fuselage is 1/32" sheet balsa. Use hard sheet at the front and light sheet at the rear and for the vertical tail. My model Is yellow with black markings but I later learned that the airplane had silver wings and vertical tall with red markings. The fuselage was clear varnish.

My model has flown best with a 5" Kaysun prop. The actual diameter of these props is 4 3/4". As would be expected with the short nose some clay Is required for balance. To start with use a loop of 1/16" FAI rubber about one and one half times the length of the motor stick. Double it and balance at the point shown. Set the elevator sections at the inboard end (cut point) up about 1/32" and test glide the model. Add more up elevator if it dives or more clay if stalls.

When a satisfactory glide is obtained put the motor on as a single loop and wind in about 200 turns. Correct a zoom with more down thrust or a dive with less. When the model Is good with this power start adding about 100 turns at each launch and correct thrust line as needed. Side thrust must be used to adjust the power turn and the rudder for the glide or low power flight.