pheonix

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 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. P

Excellent modelling Dave. That rigging certainly looks very good - and is good practice for a pusher! P

Thanks gents for the very kind comments - much appreciated. It may be a while before I post again as I want to try to finish both wings - at least the majority of the ribs are made now.... P

Evening All, First my belated thanks to Chris and Marklo for you kind comments. I did nothing for the whole of December and even failed at times to look up events on this and other sites - 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. P

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. 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. P

My thanks to all who have dropped by and commented - your comments are much appreciated. P

Evening All, This was built as part of a memorial GB on ww1aircraftmodels.com to honour Dave Wilson who ran the site after the founder, Des Delatore died. The Deutsche Flugzeug Werke of Leipzig started by building Farmans and Nieuports under licence but in 1912 they designed their first machine - a monoplane with a steel structure and fabric covering. Shortly after they turned the design into a biplane and both types were produced in small numbers until 1914. Early machines had a 4 cylinder engine, but later types were powered by 100hp engines, often but not always Merceedes types. The distinct swept back wing gave it another name - "arrow". The tips of the 18 meter span wings could fold down to allow the machines to be placed in canvas hangars. All machines were two seaters, with the pilot in the rear seat, and were inherently stable and therefore relatively easy to fly. They also had ailerons at a time when wing warping was still a common feature of many other types. The biplane variant set an endurance record for German aircraft of over 7 hours. Two machines were bought by the Turks and employed for reconnaissance in the Baltic Wars of 1912-1913, but were flown by German pilots. In Britain the Beardmore company bought a machine in 1913 and had it flown to Brooklands where it was demonstrated to potential civilian and military customers. In April 1914 a second machine was flown to Brooklands where it was purchased by the Admiralty and assigned the number 154. 154 was flown to Eastchurch for testing by RNAS pilots but in August 1914 following the outbreak of war it was transferred to Killingholme in Lincolnshire because there was concern that it being a Greman design it might attract unwarranted attention from the ground. It was dismantled later in 1914 and eventually scrapped in 1915. The second Mars which was still at Brooklands was requisitioned by the Navy and also flown to Eastchurch and other airfields: it crashed and badly damaged the undercarriage in January 1915 and it too was scrapped. The history of the machines in German service is less clear but it is almost certain that both the monoplane and biplane types saw service at the front in the early months of the war. They were certainly in use as trainers at the DFW airfield from 1913 to 1915. There is a postcard which shows a DFW biplane flown by Flug. Lt. von Hiddessen which states that he was the first pilot to bomb Paris in 1914. Thanks for looking. P.

Evening All, The last parts have been added to the Mars and I have rigged it with rolled copper wire as per normal for my small scale models. The axles for the wheels were cut from a paper clip and the wheels CA'd to the ends of the axles after the axles had been passed through holes drilled in the undercarriage legs. The small tail incidence wheel was made from thin rod wrapped around a paintbrush handle and immersed in very hot water, with the spokes of the wheel cut from 10 x 20 thou strip. The model was rigged over several days because I either lacked the time or energy to complete it more rapidly. Finally I glued the propellor to the nose: I will post more photos in the RFI section shortly. Thanks for looking. P.

Evening All, Thanks for the kind comment Stuart - in fact scratch building is much easier than many people imagine, (and I used to). Looking at the skills used to super-detail kits I am sure than many more modellers could scratch build models if they chose to do so. After I had joined the upper wing halves I succeeded in painting the model - the white took several coats as I had thinned the paint and had to keep applying layers to hide the filler! The black of the fuselage by contrast was much easier, but because I do not like painting the whole process seemed to take a very long time: I cemented the lower wing to fuselage struts in place before I attempted to fit the upper wing. The fuel tank was attached to the upper wing but fixing the upper wing to the lower wing and fuselage presented more of a challenge than some biplanes because the inter-plane struts had a large angle of stagger. However a simple pair of card jigs solved the problem by supporting the upper wing while I inserted the outboard struts: The cabane struts were not painted prior to fitting because I forgot to! They were cut to the required length from shaped Evergreen strip as were the other struts. I used 25 thou rod for the wing skids: The struts underneath the tail were added from 30 thou rod. The main undercarriage structure was made from 20 x 30 strip, filed to aerofoil shape and the thinner inner bracing was made from 25 thou rod. This was assembled by attaching the main lags first and then inserting the rod and gently pulling the structure together and supporting ithe legs with small strips of wood while the cement set. The result looks like this: There are more details to add before I can rig the model but at last I can see the end in sight. Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, Thanks to all who have passed by and left comments and likes - all very much appreciated. After the curved plastic additions to the fuselage had set overnight I was able to drill holes where the cockpit openings would be and enlarge them with half-round and round files. I also needed to add quite a lot of filler to the bottoms of the fuselage additions and especially the rear of the rear cockpit opening to smooth everything and get a more accurate profiles. The coaming strips were added from 20 thou rod. I also inserted the horizontal tail surfaces into the slot that I had cut in the rear fuselage: The wing and aileron ribs have been filled with Mr Surfacer 1000 and sanded to profile: The next step will be to add the lower wing halves to the fuselage and fill and clean the joints, and join the upper wing halves so that painting can begin. Thanks for looking. P.

Super fuselage serial. Never mind the rigging - it helps to make the model more realistic and is worthwhile. P

This is an excellent project - super scratch building techniques on display here and some very fine paintwork. P

Evening All, Now that the S38/HMS Hibernia is finished I am returning to the DFW Mars build. I have glued 10 x 20 thou strip on to the wing blanks to represent ribs, and have given them a preliminary sanding but I have still got to add Mr Surfacer to smooth out the edges. This shows the strip as applied but before sanding: Above is the lower wing and below the upper wing halves: I cut out the openings for the cockpits and inserted 30 thou plastic card strips to the inside of the front fuselage halves. The latter will provide a better anchor for the exhaust pipes which will be added at a later stage: On the outside of the front fuselage I cemented small pieces of 30 x 40 strip to represent cooling louvres. I glued the pieces of strip in the correct places and then sanded off the leading edges to create a curved half-rounded section: The cockpit details were simple for two reasons: the original cockpits would also have been simple - just wicker seats and a control wheel and rudder bar, and some simple instruments. The second reason is that I could not find any details of what had been there so I had to guess what things looked like. In any event very little will be seen on the finished model so there was no need to worry too much. Having joined the fuselage halves I removed a small section from the nose and cut a piece of 60 thou card which replaced the original nose. I did this because I wanted a frim location for the propellor shaft later and a slightly more angular nose: I have also cut a slot in the rear fuselage to take the horizontal tail surface later. The cockpits of the Mars had bulges in the top of the fuselage. This was because the fuselage was very narrow and the shoulders of the crew would have been very cramped if extra room had not been provided. To achieve the bulged sections I have cemented two curved pieces of 30 thou card over the apatures in the fuselage - these extend down the sides so that I can shape them: More to come later. In the meantime, thanks for looking. P

I have posted a separate RFI on the S38 which does have close ups of the rigging. P

Thanks all for the very kind comments. @Head in the clouds. - when you have made as many pusher models as I have, the rigging was not so difficult. With practice a simple plan can be organised and then it is "follow the instructions"! P

Evening All, This is a second post with reference to the Short S38: it is about the launch platform and events which took place in 1912. On a visit to Eastchurch Aviation Museum a couple of years ago, I saw this photograph: THE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR. © IWM (Q 67864) IWM Non Commercial License It shows the launch ramp on HMS Hibernia with the Short S 38. I knew nothing about this experiment in early naval aviation so I dd a little research and was amazed at what I discovered. What follows is an account of the events that led to this incredible feat and the model that I have constructed from scratch, (sadly there are no kits of either the aeroplane or the turret and fore part of the ship), for display in the museum. On 14 November 1910 Eugene Ely became the first pilot to launch an aircraft from a ship: USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Birmingham was an armoured cruiser which had a special wooden structure mounted over the forward turrets and bows. Ely landed at Willoughby Spit after a 5 minute flight. On 18 January 1911 Ely became the first pilot to land on a ship: a temporary structure had been built on the rear of USS Pennsylvania which was in San Francisco Bay. After landing his aircraft was turned around and he made a successful take-off and flew back to land. Ely taking off from USS Birmingham: Ely landing on USS Pennsylvania: The above did not go unnoticed by navies around the world, not least the Royal Navy who at the time was the most powerful maritime force in existence. In January 1911 four naval officers who had been selected by the British Admiralty for pilot training reported to Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where the Royal Aero Club had its airfield, and one of its members, F. McClean had offered to train the cadet pilots using his own aircraft. (The Admiralty did not own any aeroplanes in early 1911). The four completed their training and qualified as pilots in April, and when the agreement between the Admiralty and Royal Aero Club expired in August 1911, two of the pilots, Samson and Longmore, pressured the Admiralty to set up a Naval Flying Training School at Eastchurch. They would use the flying ground of the Royal Aero Club and the two machines which McClean had been allowing the pilots to fly: the Admiralty had bought them from McClean. In addition McClean offered more of his aeroplanes to the Admiralty for pilots to learn to fly and to practice on. Eastchurch was the site of the aeroplane factory of the Short Brothers company, so Samson, Longmore and navy personnel were allowed to collaborate with the Shorts to carry out experiments which might have potential value for naval aviation, including flying from a ship and landing on water. Before an attempt could be made to fly from a ship, a method had to be invented and tested to show that an aircraft could safely land on water and be recovered. Oswald Short designed some streamlined air filled bags which could be attached to the undercarriage of an aeroplane. These were attached to one of the newly acquired Admiralty aircraft - a Short S 38 biplane. On 1st December 1911 Lt Longmore flew the aircraft from Eastchurch across the River Medway to the Isle of Grain where he landed close to the shore: he was towed to the beach by a naval picket boat and the aircraft was pulled ashore by sailors. After the aircraft had dried out Longmore took off and landed back at Eastchurch. Meanwhile in Sheerness harbour a temporary wooden platform was being constructed over the front turret and bows of a King Edward VII battleship, HMS Africa. On 19 January 1912 Commander Samson flew the S38 with airbags to the Isle of Grain and landed at Cockleshell Hard by the seawall. There the aircraft was manhandled over the sea wall and loaded via wooded planks on to a coal lighter, on which it was towed to the side of HMS Africa where it could be lifted on to the wooden launch platform. Later on the same day Samson made the first take off from a ship in Britain - he flew back to Eastchurch. For this flight the S38 was powered by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine and Samson was only just able to keep the aircraft in the air after he had launched from the wood platform. In the spring of 1912 a more powerful 70 hp Gnome rotary engine was fitted to S38 to provide more power for take off in preparation for a second experiment - to launch an aircraft from a moving ship. On 1 May 1912 the S38 was flown once again to Cockleshell Hard, Grain where it was loaded on to a lighter and carried to Sheerness harbour. Here it was loaded on to a sister ship to HMS Africa - HMS Hibernia, to which the wooden launch platform had been transferred. The S 38 was loaded on to the platform and secured, following which Hibernia sailed to Weymouth, Dorset where the Naval Review was to take place. On 3 May S38 was unloaded and taken ashore by lighter and moved to Lodmoor landing ground. On 9 May during the review, S38 was transferred again to Hibernia. THE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR. © IWM (Q 67864) IWM Non Commercial License The officer on the ramp is almost certainly Cmdr. Samson In the afternoon when the weather improved Samson took off from the ramp on Hibernia to make the first launch of an aircraft from a moving ship. Hibernia was steaming at 15 knots and Samson was able to clear the ramp and launch without fear of landing in the sea - he landed at Lodmoor. THE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR. © IWM (Q 67864) IWM Non Commercial License The S38 was taken from Lodmore by sea back to Eastchurch from where, on 7 July 1912, he flew to Sheerness harbour and landed on the water next to HMS London. London also had a temporary platform mounted on its foredeck, and S38 was lifted on to this. London then sailed to Portsmouth for another Naval Review. On 4 July while London was still 19 miles from land, Lt L’Estrange Malone took off in a 20 knot wind while London was steaming at 12 knots: S 38 left the platform without any forward movement thus making the first recorded vertical take off by a fixed wing aircraft - a feat that was not be to repeated for many decades. Malone flew to Eastney barracks at Portsmouth and landed safely there. After these experiments were concluded no further trials were carried out launching aircraft from ships in the Royal Navy until after the First World War had broken out: in 1915 more experiments were conducted using wooden platforms on the foredecks of warships and smaller tractor aircraft. Later in the war ships were converted so that a flight deck could be built on the top of the ship and the funnel exhaust was directed to the rear of the ship by pipes. The modern aircraft carrier had been invented. Jack Newman’s RN serviceman father was an eye witness to Samson’s successful launch from Hibernia and gave the following account: “My father has been in the Royal Navy for nine months and has just completed his initial training at HMS Ganges, a shore establishment. Together with the rest of his class of boy seamen he was drafted to HMS Hibernia, a battleship and also the Irish Flag Ship for further training at sea. When the young men arrive on board they learn that the ship was just about to sail to join the rest of the fleet gathered in Weymouth Bay on the coast of England. They also learn that they had been singled out to take a small part in an operation that will make its way into the history books. The battleship that they have just joined has an ungainly appearance. A long wooden platform sloping downwards has been built over the forward gun turret. As they are hurried on board a flimsy bi-plane is winched up from a lighter lying alongside and as soon as it is stowed away correctly the ship weighs anchor and sets sail. Dad and the other boys are then told that when they arrive at Weymouth their ship is going to attempt the first take off by an aircraft from a moving ship in the Royal Navy. Because this is a special occasion the whole fleet has been anchored in two lines of warships in the bay and Hibernia is going to steam between them so that the event can be watched by as many senior officers as possible. Apart from many admirals, the king himself, George V, will also be present. During the voyage Dad and the other boy seamen are given training in releasing the toggle that restrained the aircraft so that it could then run down the platform and hopefully leap into the air. On the day chosen the boys are very nervous as they are mustered just in front of the ship’s bridge. They can see the many officers and men watching from the assembled ships as the Hibernia turns to pass between them. Several admirals and members of the press are crowded together on their ship’s bridge just behind where they are standing in a line loosely holding onto a single rope attached to the toggle. Dad said that whilst waiting for the pilot to appear one of the boys was having a good laugh at the appearance of Mr. Short, a brother of the aircraft’s builder. Apparently Mr. Short had a rather large head. Unknown to the boy however the ships Commander was standing right behind him and he planted a well polished right boot under the stern of the offending boy and there was no more joking or sky larking after that. At a signal from the captain, the pilot Lt Commander Sampson, climbed up into the cockpit of the biplane and a mechanic swung the propeller to start the engine. All except one restraining rope to the toggle were unlashed as the pilot ran the engine up to full power. Then the pilot dropped his left hand and the boys pulled hard on the remaining rope to release the toggle. Dad said that they did this so well that we ended up in a heap on the bridge under the feet of the senior officers, much to their amusement. The little aircraft accelerated down the ramp and rose into the air before reaching the end of it. The pilot flew on at low level between the waiting ships where he was cheered heartedly by their ships companies as the aircraft flew by. He then went on to land at an airfield near Weymouth. Lt Commander Sampson was immediately promoted and after being congratulated had dinner with his majesty that evening at the palace. He later formed the first RNAS camp at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey. My dad spent the entire First World War aboard motor torpedo boats operating in the North Sea, but that is another story.” There is a build log at Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, I am very interested in early aviation history so when a couple of years ago I was visiting Eastchurch Aviation Museum on Sheppey in Kent, the original home of Short Brothers Aeroplane Company, I was intrigued by this photograph taken in 1912 probably at Sheerness a couple of miles away: [ (Photo in the public domain: IWM) It shows a launch ramp on HMS Hibernia with a Short S 38 biplane. What, I wondered, was that about? To keep the post readable I will first describe the Short S38 and in a second post the events concerning the first launch of an aircraft from a moving ship. The Short S38 The S38 was one of a number of biplanes of the Farman-Sommer type built by the Short brothers in 1910 and 1911. They had been designed by H. Short with R Sommer based on an Henri Farman boxkite design, and were notable for the good handling qualities and robust construction. They were flown by several pilots in the Royal Aero Club including F. McClean and C. Grace. The engines fitted varied at first, but it was found that the 50 hp and 60 hp Gnome engines gave the aircraft a very good performance. The aircraft chosen for the experiments launching aircraft from a moving ship was the Short S 38. It was chosen because it was one of two aeroplanes which had been bought by the British Admiralty from Frank McClean, a keen early aero-enthusiast and one of the founder members of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later the Royal Aero Club). The Short brothers factory was at Eastchurch in Kent and shared the airfield with the owners - the Royal Aero Club. The British Admiralty had established a flying school for naval pilots at the same site and it became a centre for experimentation with aircraft and their potential use for naval purposes. The Short Farman-Sommer aircraft were found to have superior handling qualities to the earlier Wright designs and in addition were of lighter and more robust construction. Several machines were built and modified for experiments with different engines, and in one case, two engines. They were also used for aero-displays around the country and for endurance flights. Early machines were single seat, but later examples had a second seat either behind the pilot (as in the S38), or in tandem which made the latter highly suitable for pilot training. Three were bought by the British Navy and used for endurance trials: S 28 flew over 4000 miles, 2 34 flew over 3000 miles and S 38 over 2000 miles for a total repair bill of £25. Although these aircraft were very successful by the standards of the day they had become worn out and obsolete by the outbreak of war in 1914 and none saw wartime service. However they were very important because they gave naval pilots invaluable flying experience and allowed the Short brothers to experiment with different aerodynamic designs and engines, and in doing so made significant contributions to the knowledge of aeronautical engineering. The model shows the floats which were attached to the machine for flotation trials and subsequent launches from HMS Africa and HMS Hibernia in 1911 and 1912 which I describe in a different post. Thanks for looking. P.

Evening All, After a few more ups and downs I have finished the S 38/Hibernia project. I made the last of the canvas covers which protected the bridge from painted paper - I am still not sure about soaking tissue/crepe paper in PVA, but may try later. In the meantime I CA'd the S 38 to the launch ramp and held it in place with cotton thread - that represents the lines which were secured to stop the machine running down the ramp until the pilot was ready to take off.......: ....... and to finish the model I added some sailors to give viewers some idea of the size of the original: I will post a short account of the experiments that this model represents and more photos shortly in the ready for inspection section. Thanks for looking. P

Ed: many thanks for the tips and kind comments. I have found some sailor figures and will add them to the base in due course as stated above. With reference tot he tompions on the gun muzzles, it seems that at the time when the aerial activity was taking place the tompions were not fitted. I am not sure why this was so - they are clearly absent in the many photographs taken at the time. P

Evening All I can now report that bit behind the pointy end of HMS Hibernia is now finished too. All I have to do to complete the project is to put the S 37 on to the ramp and add some sailors - but that will have to wait. Here is the ship part. The front of the bridge was covered in canvas shrouds presumably to protect it against the oil and exhaust from the rotary engine. These caused me many headaches as I tried several types of paper: tissue, crepe, kitchen roll, etc. All of them crinkled or tore when I tried to apply paint - none of them worked at all well. In the end I used printing paper and painted that - not the best effect either but the best that I can do for the moment. I may ask for help from members of my modelling club later, but for now I am leaving things alone. I also put on the supports for the deck wires - they were from Cornwall Model Boats and are brass fittings primed and painted. The wires are clear monofilament thread painted with Revell Eisen (91). The gangways were made from strip wood. I hope to finish this in the next couple of days: more when it is finished. Thanks for looking. P.

Thanks all for the very kind comments - much appreciated. @AdrianMF: I use CA for the rigging as it is metal to plastic or metal. P

Evening All Thanks Ian, Chris and Pieter for your kind comments and others who have left their marks of approval - all much appreciated. Pieter: the platform used on the British warships was a bit of a Heath-Robinson affair but was the best that could be done at the time. I am not familiar with HMS Tiger but I suspect that the same basic idea was used because it was quick and cheap to make, and until full deck carriers could be converted and brought into service, they provided a useful alternative. It reminds one of the CAM ships in WW2 which were based on a similar principle, except that a staem catapult was used to launch the aircraft. I have completed the S38 part of the Africa/Hibernia project: the S 38 will be set on the launch ramp over the turret when that part of the project is finished. Here is how the last parts of the aircraft were put together and then the remaining rigging finished. I started by fitting the front elevator to the front booms and added the control horns to the sides: I fixed the pilot's seat and the small platform which extended in front of the pilot, plus the rudder bar and control stick, to the leading edge of the lower wing. The undercarriage was next. This consisted of two horizontal skids held by two legs on each side of the centre line, with a single axle and two wheels mounted inside the skids. I expected this to be weak, (which is why I had been putting it off for a long time), as the undercarriage legs are only set in very shallow pits on the underside of the wing. However once the axle and wheels were in place the structure seemed to gain strength so provided that I handle the model carefully, it seems to hold up well. I rigged this part of the model straight away as it was easily accessible at this stage: The engine and propellor followed: before I could fit the engine I had to add the push rods. Those supplied in the kit were just too thin for me to handle, and in addition some of the locating holes in the crank case had become filled with paint, so I made some alternatives from stretched sprue instead. I did not bother with the spark plugs: they are so small that they are impossible for me to handle and nobody would ever see them anyway. With the engine in place the wood propellor was added to finish that part of the model. Rigging of the lower boom arms followed so that I could fit the rear float. That sat on two arms suspended between the tail skids. The arms were made from 20 thou styrene rod and the skids from thin strip. I also fitted the horizontal tail surfaces and ailerons which completed almost all of the sub-assemblies except the floats and rudders: I superglued two pieces of stripwood to the main undercarraige struts - they form the attachment points for the forward floats when they were fitted later. Final rigging now took place - I used rolled 40 SWG copper wire held with superglue to finish the booms and add the control wires to the elevator and rudders. Before I could fit the rudders to the rudder post the bracing had to be attached first - 6 wires per side on two rudders: With the rudders attached and rigging complete it only needed the fixing of the undercarriage floats to complete the aircraft. I will show more photographs of the completed S38 when I have finished the whole project and can put the aeroplane permanently on to the platform. However that will not be for a few days so in the meantime here is a teaser shot of the S38: Thanks for looking. P

Evening All, While I have been working on the Short S37/Hibernia project, I have also made some progress with this one: here is a short update. I carved the fuselage male mould and cut a female mould from plywood. The two fuselage halves were plunge moulded from 30 thou plastic card: The moulds were cut from the card, and I have also cut out the wing blanks. The upper wing was swept back so I have had to cut that in two pieces which I will join together later. I have marked in pencil where the ribs will be cemented later: More later. Thanks for looking. P

Many thanks for the link: I have already used some of their figures in other small dios and they are first class. I may be able to modify some of these but being metal I am not sure how successful I would be. P

Evening All, Many thanks Mal and Charlie for your kind remarks - they are much appreciated. I have been back at the Short S38/Hibernia project this week as I do want to get this one moving again. For a number of reasons it seems to have slowed to a crawl recently, so I have focussed some time and attention and have almost completed the ship part of the project, although there are still details to add before it will be ready to take the model aeroplane. The first item was to weather the ramp: photographs show that it was not badly weathered at all as the wood had probably been bought and used for the ramp from new. I used a grey wash but dd not apply too many coats - just enough to take the brightness out of the lime strip. I also gave a couple of coats to the other stripwood that I used to make up the supports. There are three cross supports on the top of the turret but they can hardly be seen when in place. These were made from beech with some very thin strips for the cross pieces around the gun barrels from lime. I also added eyes from thin copper wire under the cross beams of the ramp above the turret: later they had thread passed through them to represent the rope bracing which is clearly visible in photographs. The turret was glued to the barbette using wood glue and when that had set put the ramp supports over the turret on to the underside of the ramp. I also glued the two outer (thicker) front supports on either side of the guns and the attached the ramp structure to the turret and deck. When this was dry I could add the remaining upright supports and cross members around the gun barrels. Brackets were made from plastic card and rod and attached to the top of the barbette with CA. I made ropes using cotton thread and copied the pattern from the photographs: when pulling the threads tight on two of the threads the copper wire eyes pulled out of the wood of the ramp. After much bad language and gnashing of teeth I managed to retrieve the situation - just. On the port (left) side of the turret a large brace was fixed from the top of the bridge to the base of the turret above the barbette. I used 80 thou rod for this - on the ship I think that it was a boom used to hold the anti-torpedo nets, but the photographs are not completely clear so that is only a guess. I added the tops to the vent shafts for the crew quarters - these are in the open position. On the sides of the hull there were two sets of steel brackets which the crew used to gain access to the torpedo net booms: I added some of these from 30 thou rod to the hull sides. I have made two gangways from wood: these will be added when I put on the post and rails around the edges of the deck. I have not photographed them yet because they have not been washed and weathered. Sadly I have been quite unable to find any suitable navy figures to put on the deck and ramp: does anyone know of a possible suitable source of figures which I could adapt and modify? They must be 1/72 or 1/76 scale and not metal if possible. Any guidance would be gratefully received. Thanks for looking. P