1/32 partial stripdown Short Wright Flyer scratchbuild

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}

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.

Evening All,

I did nothing for the whole of December - life and complete loss of motivation were the cause. However since the start of the new year I seem to have become more energised - possibly because the days are getting longer and post the holiday period we have actually seen some sun for short periods! I am hoping that now things are moving again I will be able to resume this project and take it to a successful conclusion.

Before the last post I had cut out the wing rib blanks and drilled holes for the spar: now I have cut out the slots on over half of them;

The top shows a blank, the second from top represents two ribs which will be under the pilot's seat. I have a couple of photos of a Wright Flyer replica that was being built for the Science Museum in the late 1960's and they show that the central ribs of the lower wing did not have lightening holes in them because they had to support the weight of the pilot and passenger. The lower rib represents the remaining ribs - there will be about 36 of those and each one takes about 30 - 40 minutes to cut. I drill out holes at each end of where the slot will be and remove the remaining plastic with a craft knife. The process is laborious and somewhat testing of patience.....

The Flyers had a pair of elevators at the front so I made these from 30 thou plastic card which was filed to aerofoil section and ribs added with 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip:

The strip was sanded down and Mr Surfacer filler painted on to smooth the edges of the ribs. When this was sanded I cut a slot in each elevator half so that I could insert a length of 20 x 30 thou strip to represent the spar in what will become the uncovered half of the elevators:

Ribs will be made and attached later.

The wings will be made from moulded sections as described in the previous post, so I soldered lengths of brass bar to make the rear spars and booms:

The spars were epoxied and superglued to the bottom of the upper wing section, and when these had cured I drilled holes for the struts and rigging wires. The wires were from monofilament thread which was held in place under the wing surface with pieces of scrap plastic:

With the spars and rigging wires secure I could add the lower part of the wing with lots of tube and liquid cement. After filling and sanding the joint between the two wing sections I added the ribs to the upper surface from 10 x 30 thou Evergreen strip:

Mr Surface filler was applied to the ribs when they were dry and when that had set I sanded the filler and strip down - here I had sanded half of the wing, the other half was still to be finished:

A final coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 was used to fill the few uneven parts. The next stage will be to put the ribs on to the spar on the other half of the wing and then repeat the whole exercise for the upper wing!

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

This project has been causing me a good deal of grief for various reasons, but recently I have discovered some important information and have adopted plan B with reference to the construction of the wings so hopefully I can now press on with more confidence and complete the model.

First the new information. I have been studying photographs of the area where the pilot, (and sometimes a passenger), sat, but the controls had not really made sense. Recently I found a photograph of C. Rolls in a Flyer at Bournemouth in 1910 which helped to resolve some mysteries. I had been using the drawings of the Short Wright Flyer published in Barnes Short Aircraft Since 1900 which were based on the Wright Flyer of 1908. Following a discussion with the staff at Eastchurch Aviation Museum I found that my suspicion that the Barnes drawings were missing something was confirmed. The Flyer design of 1908 was unstable - with the elevator at the front and short booms to the rudders at the rear, the machines pivoted fore and aft. To correct this the rudder was set further back and additional booms added to carry an elevator behind the rudder. This increased the overall length of the aircraft but made it more stable and easier to control. Shorts built 6 of the Flyers, all of which seem to have been modified as described, and another machine which was bought by Rolls but manufactured in France was also modified in that way. I have altered my drawings to incorporate these changes.

Now for plan B. I had been trying to build the wings using the same method as on my Vickers FB 5 Gunbus and BE 2a, by moulding an upper and lower half and mating them around brass bar spars. However the Wright machines had the front spar as the leading edge of the wing which meant that on the model wings the front spar was set back from the leading edge of the wing.

This would not do because I want to make the wings in the same way as the earlier models, ie with one half showing the rib structure. Secondly the leading edges of the moulded wings were very thick when they should have been the thickness of the spars: that was a product of the moulding process which I simply could not overcome, so I had to bin the wing and adopt a different approach. I had initially thought of making the covered parts of the wings from laminated card: I returned to that idea and started again.

I laminated two sheets of 80 thou card to make up wing blanks. To make an aerofoil section on the upper surface I used an electric sander- it only took about 20 minute per wing and I had two usable parts.

I filed the leading edges flat so that I could attach the brass bar spars with CA later and trimmed and shaped the outer trailing edges to shape. A round file was used to get the slight indent on the trailing edge between the ribs.

Ribs were added from 10 x 30 thou Evergreen strip which was sanded almost flat and Mr Surfacer filler added to smooth the edges. I also CA’d the front spar so that the join could be filled at the same time: all was sanded smooth before I drilled a hole in the end of the wing blank to take one end of the rear spar. That was CA’d in place using a simple jig to get the correct alignment.

While I was struggling with the wing problem I decided to make a seat for the pilot. That consisted of a wicker chair with the legs removed! A piece of 30 thou plastic made the seat and two lengths of rod made up the back.

When I start to assemble this model I will need to be careful that I do not attach parts and find later that I cannot get access to some areas. I am also using metal and plastic and as plastic does not behave well in the presence of high temperatures I have had to give a lot of thought to instructions for assembly sequences. First I had to make the undercarriage assemblies. These were from 1/16 inch (1.59mm) brass bar. The skids were bent to shape over the plans and the struts cut from bar. When soldering every joint has to be scrupulously clean and well fluxed. I drew out the plan of the structure on a piece of paper, pinned the paper to a balsa block and assembled the parts over it, using pins to hold everything rigid while I applied the heat and solder.

After the soldering was finished all joints were thoroughly washed to remove any flux and the joints gently filed to remove excess solder.

The next step will be to drill strut holes in the wing and attach the undercarriage to the lower wing half before I put on the ribs.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

Progress which up until now has been rather erratic, has taken off in the last few days as many parts which have taken a long time to make can now be assembled. However before assembly could really begin I had to add the horns on the front of the undercarriage legs which held the front elevator structure. Once again brass bar was used - this was soldered to the ends of the horns on the undercarriage skids:

As already noted, the Short Wright machines were altered in many ways from the original Wright design. One of the changes was to add a boom to the rear of the airframe to support an elevator. This was basically an open box structure so I made up the upper and lower sections from brass bar. One of these sections was attached to the rear of the lower wing: where the boom met the rear spar I soldered the joint; where the boom joined the plastic section of wing I drilled a vertical hole into the top of the wing and then turning the drill on its side I scraped out a groove behind the hole. The groove was deepened further with a narrow square file until the forward end of the boom sat snugly in the upper surface of the wing - this was CA'd into place. To ensure that I had the boom at the correct angle to the wing I used a much tried and tested method. I drew a line  on the side elevation drawing which touched the leading and trailing edge of the wing and carried it to below where the boom would attach to the elevator. I had to estimate the size of the elevator posts, but I could measure the vertical distance between the rear end of the boom on the plan and the horizontal line drawn from the wing as shown on this sketch:

The distance "A" on the sketch was the measurement that I needed to set the correct angle of the boom in relation to the wing, and I could set up a jig accordingly:

The wing assembly has been pinned to a block of balsa to hold it steady while the rear of the boom has been rested on a book which was the correct thickness for distance 'A' from the plan. The white blob on the rear spar is a heat sink consisting of a piece of tissue soaked in water to protect the plastic wing. Whoever said that scratch building pusher biplanes was difficult? NB the central boom which will support the rudders has not been attached at the moment because the one I had fixed earlier was too short: remember from an earlier post that I discovered recently how the rear section of these aircraft had been extended to improve longitudinal stability. I had soldered the original rudder boom but as that is next to the end of the plastic section of the wing I cannot solder a new one into place: instead I will have to use superglue and I am afraid that it may well be broken off during handling, so I am leaving that until a later stage of construction.

The undercarriage skids and struts were fixed to the wing as follows. Where the skids are attached to the brass bar spars I could solder the joint. I tried to do this by placing the wing assembly on to a balsa block and holding the boom with pins, but after several unsuccessful attempts I had to retire hurt. After some thinking I decided to adopt a completely different approach. I drew a line on the wood block over which i could place the spars so that the location points for the undercarriage supports on the spars were placed over the pencil line. The wing structure was pinned to the balsa block and the undercarriage placed on to the location points on the spars. The forward end of the undercarriage was held between two piles of books - with large heavy books at the top of each pile so that the undercarriage structure could not move easily either. A set square was used to make sure that the u/c was vertical and the line on the block was used to correct the fore-aft orientation. The books also held the u/c in place while I was able to move freely around to solder the two joints:

Another awkward operation completed with minimal fuss and the use of Jig Type B. (Note to VV: if you are reading this: Jig Type B is patented...)

The other half of the undercarriage was fixed by drilling a small hole on the plastic part of the wing and filling this with epoxy resin. I gently lowered the undercarriage leg into the resin and added CA to the front legs where they join the front spar on the leading edge of the wing. I only needed to hold the structure for a few seconds to allow the CA to set and the sub-assembly could be left to allow the epoxy to harden.

All the above was done with a minimum of fuss and use of Anlgo Saxon language, (except when I tried and failed the first attempt to fix the undercarriage using pin supports), and required minimum amounts of skill. I repeat: pusher aircraft are not so difficult to make as some seem to think!

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

I have finished the wings at last. The lower wing had the ribs added to the port (left) side after the last post: these were slotted along the rear spar and secured with superglue:

The three outer ribs were smaller than the remainder of the wing and had to be cut and shaped separately. I added a new rudder boom to the rear spar as the one I had fitted was too short for the reasons I explained in an earlier post. I secured the brass bar with superglue but I know that will not be as strong as a soldered joint so I am hoping that it will not fall off before I can secure it with the rudders.

The upper wing was made in the same way as the lower: solid plastic for the covered part which had been sanded to aerofoil shape with an electric sander, ribs from 20 x 30 Evergreen strip which were sanded down and Mr Surfacer added to smooth out the rib sections. The spars were brass bar but this time I soldered a rudder boom which was of the correct length. Ribs and elevator boom were added in the same way as the lower wing and I have drilled rigging holes in both wing assemblies. All of the brass parts for both wing assemblies have been primed:

I can now start painting these units prior to assembly of the upper wing to the lower wing and undercarriage.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

Painting has progressed to the stage where I can now continue with construction. (There are no decorations on this model - the aircraft was devoid of any markings - as typical for the time. Only racing aircraft had numbers - usually on the rudder but sometimes on the fuselage. In this case there was no fuselage...... and Rolls did not use this particular machine for racing). I wanted to represent the wooden parts that were covered in a different shade to those which were exposed, so I used a mix of acrylic white and Revell beige (314) for the ribs and spars and white and Revell Okre (88) for the wooden parts that were normally exposed: the contrast is not strong but as the airframe was made of of ash for the spars, booms and undercarriage and a mixture of ash and spruce for the ribs, the original contrast would not have been strong either. However the exposed wood parts would have been varnished, so I made those a little darker. The fabric surfaces were a mix of acrylic white and Revell beige (314)with even less beige in the mixture than for the wood:

If anyone is wondering what the oddments are in the last image, they are the elevators. Half are represented as fabric covered and the other half will be exposed - only the spar is in place at the moment as I have still to make the ribs. There was a biplane arrangement at the front of the aircraft and a single elevator at the rear. The single booms extending from the wings support the rudders, the double booms the rear elevator.

I have been busy making parts for where the pilot sat: a new seat, (the one shown before on this thread was apparently fitted to French built Flyers, and although Rolls owned one of these - indeed he was killed flying it in July 1910 - it seems most probable that he was flying a Short built machine when he flew across the English Channel), the frame on which the seat was fixed, and the control levers:

The engine is now finished and has been mounted on blocks and a drip tray:

The engine is approximately 2cm long x 2cm high.

I am now ready to mount the top wing and struts and then I can tie off all of the pesky threads which are attached to the solid parts of the wings.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.

Evening All,

It's official: the Short Wright model is now a real aeroplane, ie it has a spare wing!

I made the struts from wood as I considered that plastic strip might not be strong enough. The wood grain was filled with a mixture of talcum powder and dope and sanded down, followed by a coat of dope and a light sanding. I used the same mix of acrylics on the struts as I had used for other exposed wood parts described in the last post.

To hold the upper wing in place while I fixd the first set of struts was awkward because the solid part of the wing was quite heavy and had to be held gently in place with books! I also put a pot of paint between the rear of the booms to stabilize that part of the structure. Because the books completely obscured the card wing supports I have photographed the jig parts after the wing was in place but you can see their respective positions:

As usual this is all very high-tech Heath-Robinson, as per my usual building methods, but it worked.

The reason for the large gap in the centre of the front is that I am leaving the space clear so that I can more easily insert the engine, radiator, pilot's seat and frame and controls. I can however put in place some of the rigging to secure some of those pesky threads which seem to be permanently in the way.

Thanks for looking.

Stevef.