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Harris Nelson Designs

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Harris, circa 1940's, with his "unlimited rubber" class kit-built, free-flight.

Model Builder Magazine, 1978. This canard pitcheron was designed to test the feasibility of a pitcheron canard. It did not fly up to expectations, thus was deemed unworthy of a name.

Model Builder Magazine, 1977. "The 1st Moth" - Designed and built in 1977 as a joint project with Harris' brother, Alan Nelson, to test the feasibility of a swept forward flying wing. Construction was fiberglass over foam...flew well.

"The Shrike", 1995. A lighter version of The Spyder for racing in light to moderate winds. All Shrikes were pitcherons with glass fuselages. One version had a 60" carbon wing, the others had a 55" Obechi covered wing. Being very quick and agile, Shrikes won most of the slope races at Torrey Pines, CA, throughout 1996 and 1997.

"The Snark", 1998. How do you design a Pitcheron Flying Wing? When you give it up-elevator will the leading edge of the wing rotate up, or will the trailing edge of the fuselage rotate down? So, how do you do it? Well, you don't... You add a small, fixed stab. Flew like it was on rails. Glass, foam, Obechi construction.

"The Elf", 1996. A polyhedral version of The Shrike, designed for those who wanted to "relax a little" while flying. A very aerobatic plane that still had "hands-off" capability. The wing was only made in an Obechi version.

"The Spyder", 1994. Designed for the 60" racing class, although a few 72" versions were also built. Most Spyders were wingerons, a few were pitcherons. Fiberglass fuse, carbon over foam wings. Very fast in heavy conditions. Won the 60" class at the Torrey Pines Slope Race in 1995.

"The Moth", 1997. 20 Years later, a 48" and 60" version of the 1977 design were built, using elevons rather than the archaic split-controls. Designed for fast, aerobatic flight, and still competitive on the race course with many 60" slopers. Flew awesome! Construction was Obechi covered foam wing, balsa fin, fiberglass fuselage.

"The M60", 2003. Big-Brother to The Moth, the M60 carries more energy and covers a lot more sky, but still has the ability to lock into strong thermals and chew up the backside..

"Bluto". In 2001, the first Bluto prototype was created. It was designed by Harris to test the efficiency of a straight leading edge plank, with no fuselage. To our knowledge, it was was the first "Delta Nose" concept plank to be on the market. It won its debut SCSR race (above pics), on the maiden voyage in Tehachapi, CA, and was a 54" twin-fin, with a straight LE, three servos (separate, central driven elevator), and...shutter... packing tape covering!

The 48" Bluto was released in January, 2002. It had a slightly different aspect ratio, and a single, rotating, split-fin. What a little speed demon! A 56" version was released a year later.

"The B-2 Bummer", 2005, was one-off monster, fully molded, with a solid Spyderfoam core. The 8ft plug was exactingly hand-shaped out of very special laminates, to exterior template guides across the span. Huge molds were made, and multi-layers of tapered carbon were augmented by a solid Spyderfoam core... this is a very unique process Harris and his brother Alan pioneered.

"The Halfpipe", 2005. Harris set out to create a design that was a little easier to build than the Moth or M60, without a sacrifice in speed, energy or spiral stability. We decided to go "fuseless", which meant sweeping the wing back ever so subtly, just to the point where balance could be achieved with an acceptable amount of nose-weight. After much experimentation with alternate planforms and fin positioning... the Halfpipe was born!

"The HP60", 2006. The HP60 is not just a scaled-up version of its little brother. Instead of an overall embiggening of the planform, we spanned the 48" Halfpipe templates to 60", resulting in a higher aspect wing, with even less sweep at the trailing edge.

"Spyder Foam". Harris Nelson named and introduced Spyderfoam to the modeling world in 1995. It was an extruded styrene with tremendous compressional strength.
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