Friday, May 12, 2017

The Mysterious Estes Bomarc and Firefly Part 2



Here's a hand drawn, die-cut balsa sheet from the Estes Mini Bomarc kit.
The sheet is marked BF-TK-5
Apparently the Estes Firefly used the same die cut balsa sheet. The Estes designers turned it into a parasite glider.
I did have a Mini Bomarc and thought the Firefly looked familiar. The Bomarc "runway" tunnel was now the central boom on the Firefly glider.
The F1 rudder piece was flipped so the runway notch was to the rear.

This may have been the first time that Estes used the same die-cut fins on two different kits.




The Vashon X-13 was similar in design, heck it might have been designed using the Bomarc lines. But, Vashon was producing their X-13 before Damon bought Vashon and brought it into the Estes catalog.



Look close, the stabilizer and rudder are different.
The X-13 had a two piece glued wing. The Firefly had you score and crack the balsa to make a dihedral angle.

To see the X-13 instructions: CLICK HERE

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, Chris,
    That definitely clears up the mystery. Nice bit of sleuthing work!

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    1. Hi Edward, I was trying to figure it out myself! I thought I recognized the Firefly/Mini Bomarc tie but had to go back and check when you brought up the Vashon X-13. I was pretty sure the X-13 was in production before the Estes Mini Bomarc.

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