"What's new?" is a phrase we're often asked, but can seldom be answered with a positive response…

Starline's new offering of the "Sokol-jr." F1H, towline glider, made in Ukraine gives us something new and exciting to talk about!
The make up of the glider kit is an excellent design that provides pre-assembled parts of hi-tech design and quality, with some new building techniques.
The model and kit's designer, Valery Gorinin, well known in central Europe, has combined carbon fiber, foam, and balsa in a combination typical of present day European practice.


Click on the drawing for a larger view.

This is a great kit for someone who likes towline gliders and it has several innovations worthy of note.

• A completely finished and painted (red) glass fiber and lime wood pod fuselage front, with timer, Isaenko style tow hook, and ballast installed. The pod is ready for final assembly with no other work required.
• Glass fiber boom
• Tailplane and fin hardware, rudder horns, and rear end plugs.
• Aluminum dihedral braces, wingjoiner, and a length of wire.
• The wing and stab parts include: carbon wing and stab t.e. balsa stab leading edge, stab spar (carbon capped and web finished). glass on foam finished 'd' boxes, with carbon spars and balsa webs, covered in silver mylar.

A new building technique is used in the wing and tail rib construction. The ribs are diamond sawn from a laminated (1.5mm) balsa block, with 0.25mm carbon caps. Polyspan tissue is provided for wing covering, and ultra-thin mylar for the stab.

Another first is the use of the packing box lid as a building jig for the wing. The molded, dense polystyrene foam forms a cambered wing building board!