1/32 partial stripdown Short Wright Flyer scratchbuild

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Evening All,

In recent years I have stumbled into the history of early civil aviation in Britain, in particular the role of the Short brothers and the Aero Club, (now the Royal Aero Club), of Great Britain. I already knew of some of the early history of British military aviation because I was brought up near Farnborough Hants, the birthplace of the Balloon Section of the Royal Engineers, who later became the Royal Flying Corps and then the RAF. I had also heard of some of the early British pioneer aviators, civil and military, but of others I knew little or nothing. However I have always been fascinated by the early designs used to experiment with powered flight - in fact the more outlandish the design the more I find them appealing. I also find the achievements of the early aviators extraordinary - that they achieved so much so quickly with such crude and sometimes unreliable and fragile machines. It is no wonder that the mortality rate of those pioneers was so high and that so few lived to witness the tremendous changes which were to take place in the following century. Today we marvel at people having walked on the moon and at space probes which have dramatically changed our understanding of our planetary system, but in 1910 people in Britain and France were marveling at the achievement of two men: L. Bleriot who in 1909 made the first single crossing of the English Channel in a powered machine, and in 1910 at C. Rolls, (of Rolls Royce fame), who made the first double crossing. Tragically Rolls was killed a few weeks later in a flying accident at Bournemouth: Bleriot went on to found a company which designed and built many very successful aircraft and which is still an important part of the modern French aviation industry.

My next project is a tribute to C. Rolls and his successful double crossing referred to above: later in a more appropriate place I will relate more of the details of this important pioneer and his achievements. Rolls flew a Short Wright Flyer biplane - a version of the Wright brothers original design which had been modified and brought to France in 1908.

The above image shows a Flyer on a launch rail in the USA - the Short versions were almost identical.

In 1909 the Short brothers founded a company in order to manufacture 6 of the Wright Flyers for members of the Aero Club of Great Britain. Some minor changes were made to the original design, but essentially they were licensed copies of the Wright brothers' machine. As usual I started by printing plans of the type and looking at as many photographs as I have been able to find. One advantage of this project is that the photographs were taken with glass plate cameras so the details which can be discerned are quite incredible. However there are still details of which I am uncertain so some modellers license will be involved.

The wings of the Flyers were very thin and the ribs were made from ash strips with separating blocks. This will be a 1/32, (ie Brobdignagian), scale model so for me it will inevitably be a partial strip-dowm model and I intend to show some of the ribs of the wings and elevators. The other parts of the wing and elevator assemblies will be covered as with my Vickers Gunbus and R. A. F. B.E. 2a. There was no nacelle on this aircraft - the engine was placed on the lower wing with the radiator mounted vertically between the wings, and the pilot sat on the leading edge of the lower wing next to the engine. Controls consisted of levers and a foot rest: there were no wheels, just skids for the undercarriage.

I started by making the covered sections of the wings: I intend to show each wing as a mirror of the other as per the B E 2a in order to balance the weight of the finshed model. This meant that I had to make two male moulds for the covered wing sections: one for the upper part and one for the lower. These were shaped from balsa plank which I found in the roof: both were made so that both ends of the wings were represented but the total length of the mould was just enough to enable me to cut the unwanted tip from respective wing halves:

The image above shows the two male moulds and the female, (the hole in a sheet of plywood). I pinned sheets of 30 thou platsic sheet over the female mould and heated the plastic under the grill until it was soft. I could then plunge the male mould into the plastic and female mould to make the sections for the wings.The ends of the moulded plastic were removed to make each wing half as shown above: these sections will be made up into wing halves and ribs added later. I have also started to make the ribs for the exposed parts of the wings. They were cut from 60 x 180 thou plastic strip. I drew an outline of the rib of a piece of strip and marked where the rear spar would pass through - a hole was drilled there and then squared off so that I could pass a piece of brass bar through it. The rib was then cut to make a master. Lengths of plastic strip were cut a little longer than the ribs will eventually become and holes drilled where the rear spar will pass through, using the master rib as a guide to getting the holes in the right place.

The holes were squared as described above and the master rib with brass bar could then be laid over the blank strip and the new rib scored with a craft knife.

I cut out the new rib and cleaned it up with a file: the process was repeated 27 times. This method greatly reduced the amount of filing because in the past I have suffered from frozen shoulder from making a large number of ribs: it also improved consistency. I could have cut a master from brass strip but as I did not have any suitable brass to hand I made plastic do. Shaping batches of ribs by holding them together while I file them was not practical with only one spar hole. (The front spar formed the leading edge of the wing so does not need a hole). i have still to cut the slots in the ribs and reduce the lengths - that will be a long and tedious process which will come later.

{contd}

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The propellors were an unusual but distinct shape which I initially found difficult to reproduce. My first attempt involved shaping plastic strip, but I failed to get the distinctive curve of the tips:

I resorted to my material of choice - wood. I have some strip hardwood which I use for propellors - I glued two pieces together and then made another attempt. Initially I had to thin down the laminated wood to the correct thickness, followed by shaping the planform of the blades:

Having marked the curve of the blade tips on the ends of the wood laminate I rounded off the outer part of the blade tip with a flat file to give the concave shape:

When I was satisfied with the outer curve I started on the inner face: first I took the face of the blade off with a file to give me a flat surface from edge to edge of the outer curved face. By carefully using a round file I removed the excess wood from the inner face until I achieved the correct convex shape with as thin a tip as I was able:

I have only made one half of one propellor so far - the above took approximately an hour, so I have another three hours of work to complete both propellors, and all the time I will be hoping that I do not make a mistake and have to start again!

The engine was 4 cylinder inline which had been designed by the Wright brothers but was built under license in Britain and France for Flyers in Britain and Europe. I made the sump from laminated card, and the cylinders from rod, (lower parts), and scrap sprue for the upper parts. I have scribed a flywheel from 30 thou card using a pair of dividers, and made the magneto and water pump from card. There were pipes on the sides of the cylinders - these will be made from thin rod.

The image also shows a piece of plastic tube which will eventually represent the fuel tank. I have still to add valve springs, push rods and other details - some will have to wait until the engine is in place on the lower wing as they will have to be made to fit, or are delicate and easily damaged or broken.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.