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Aeronut

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Everything posted by Aeronut

  1. Kay, I think the crank is for a Booster coil so that you can hand swing the engine from outside with no-one in the cockpits. That's also the reason for the magneto switches on the outside, the AP shows two sets of mag switches located by the front cockpit. The head of the Ki-gas priming pump that you operate prior to starting can be seen just behind the exhaust ring below the hatch for the oil tank filler, so that once you've set the throttle (and if you are sensible, inserted wheel chocks and applied the brakes), everything you need to start the engine is on the forward port side of the fuselage; you can reach into the cockpit to control the revs with the throttle once the engine starts.
  2. You should see his design for the Pobjoy Shorts PD7 naval helicopter he was working on just before the start of WW2. Side on it looked like a podgy Sycamore, head on it was a streamlined shape not much wider than the pilot's shoulders (think HP Hampden with a rotor). The anti-torque was going to be provided by two hinged sections of the fuselage, one forward of the rotor and one aft pivoting in opposition like ailerons. The PD7 was an interesting concept, tandem crew, retractable undercarriage, amphibious and armed with a pivoting Oerlikon cannon. Sikorsky showed the way to control the torque was the tail rotor although he struggled with cyclic and collective control which was something Hafner had solved by 1930 with his Spider. Hafner was sensible enough to go with the tail rotor for the Sycamore.
  3. That was down to Hafner’s Spider, something the Sycamore shares with the Lynx/Wildcat.
  4. No doubt it will be deemed to signify some sort of ritual (archalogical speak for “we haven’t got a clue”)
  5. Was there an RN ship in port at the time? It wasn’t an attack in revenge for the Battle of Flanbourgh Head was it? ( look it up ) What amazes me is that with all the butchering of the English language the Americans get away with they’ve kept the French pronunciation of Bonhomme Richard.
  6. For thin fabric you need to find some old linen draughting sheets as beloved of old style drawing offices (Before CAD came along). The wax coating (and any drawing) will wash out with hot soapy water leaving a nice fine cloth behind which will cut into strips with care. NB just make sure the drawing you destroy isn’t of any historical interest. 😉
  7. The transport joint looks to be in the correct place, so why the main spar and all the gubbins behind it? Hopefully someone will come up with some resin pieces to represent the leading edge nose rib with all the hydraulic, pneumatic and control cable bulkhead connectors that were a feature of the outside of the Lancaster nose section. Thank you HK models for the assembly stand but I do wish someone will provide us with a Queen Mary trailer and tractor unit.
  8. I like your thinking but just to muddy the waters further I’m on the extreme edge of Hampshire with Wiltshire a matter of yards away and I worked at Boscombe Down for 30 years (may or may not be relevant). An hours drive can take in a whole host of military bases and museums covering all three services.
  9. Two years ago I had a small part in assisting a Hong Kong based model manufacturer (I can't remember the company just the Hong Kong location) whilst they obtained detailed measurements and photographs for a subject they intended to produce as a 1:32 kit. This was on an active British military base and at a nearby military museum. I wonder if this is the kit about to be announced? If it is, there are going to be some shocked BM members out there, but I'll be very happy.
  10. What no monogrammed lace edged antimakassas for the seat backs? You’ve been let easy. 😉
  11. No more RATO take-off displays then as the J's air deflectors didn't have the fittings needed.
  12. Burn the heretic. 😉 No hang on, I like that, a nice bit of modelling and fun at the same time. 😀
  13. I remember having a number of interesting meetings with Airbus about the specification for the A400M cargo hold. The unisex urinals 😮 were causing design problems until we decided that the girls could just use the toilet cubicles under the stairs to the flight deck. 😇
  14. Its a urinal, there were two others down the back (port and starboard) with the chemical toilet (port only) aft of the ramp hinge. These could have privacy curtains rigged - if the loadie could be bothered.
  15. The spotter aircraft launched at the River Plate was a Fairey Sea Fox. Note the film makers attempt at representing the Sea Fox's Napier Dagger exhausts on the Tiger Moth/Queen Bee's cowling.
  16. She’s already ordered the Zaps to apply the first time it lands in Scotland, they read DIS. 😁
  17. How big is the mis-match? Remember seat cushions crush when sat on, so a little judicious seat cushion removal might be a solution. As to our pilot's problem of being too tall to fit the cockpit, I sympathise, When I started work at the A&AEE I was measured and found to be tall sat down! In RAF anthropometric terms I have a 98 percentile sitting height. As a result I got used for some cockpit integration trials, which is why I know I should not fly in the Islander AL 1 wearing a Mk 4 helmet (required AEA) or the Vigilant T1 motor glider wearing a headset. This last limit I happily ignored for 27 years whilst I instructed Air Cadets on the Vigilant. 🙂
  18. Top canopy could be a tad darker but that's OK. If you haven't already done so, do a search for the Historic Army Aircraft Flight, one of the engineering team is a keen photographer and closet modeller so the web site has plenty of detail photographs of the Scout, Beaver, Sioux, Auster Mk 9, Skeeter, Chipmunk and Tiger Moth.
  19. The reported cost was not all taken up by paint, the aircraft also had quite a serious servicing. As for the paint it first had to have its old paint stripped back to bare metal (and plastic) so that inspection/repair/modifications could be carried out. Then its a coat of primer followed (presumably) by the Infra Red undercoat (black!) which is something your everyday airliner doesn't get before the top coat goes on. The markings could be paint but more likely they are a vinyl wrap. The A330 is not a small beast and frankly I'd be more interested in the acreage covered, the volume of paint used along with the not inconsiderable weight of it all rather than the cost. That I'll leave to the media who like to mis-report things so as to create dissent amongst the masses, which the media can report on thus justifying the salaries they don't deserve.
  20. Just beware of the fit if the internal parts inside the fuselage. The mearest hint of Paint (or glue) on the mating faces produces an interference fit that means the fuselage will be hard (or impossible) to close up. It’s a lovely model when finished though.
  21. I know an old Air Despatcher with many hours in the Valletta. He has a lot of good things to say about it but anything about lugging the loads UP the fuselage on the ground or over the main spar either on the ground or in the air are not fit to be printed.
  22. I went there in the 90's when they had the second Hercules modified for the Credible Sport rescue mission of the Tehran Embassy hostages sat outside. It was a fascinating aircraft to look at as it was both inventive (all those rockets and extended flaps) and crude (lots of steel angle used) at the same time. Warner Robins museum is one I'd like to got back to.
  23. I have copies of 4 manufacturers colour scheme drawings (non are Spitfires) and it is noticeable that whilst the points on the edges where the colours change are given fixed dimensions the curves of the scheme are left to the skill of the painter to follow. So if schemes were painted free-hand there would be some variation in the pattern.
  24. Based solely on the tailwheel leg, its most definitely a Beaver. As a member of the HAAF engineering team its a component I have been in close contact with, up until the Covid lockdown.
  25. 626 got trapped by the Lockdown on her return from North Weald and only managed to be ground run for the first time this year last Friday. It also looks like due to lockdown causing the cancellation of most airshows she may not even fly this year. Anyone building a model of the Scout (or Beaver, Sioux, Auster AOP9, Chipmunk and Tiger Moth, which are the aircraft in the Historic Army Aircraft Flight) should look for the HAAF on social media. The flight's web master is a 'born again modeller' and photographer and has posted many inside and outside views of the aircraft both complete and stripped for maintenance. He even offers a bespoke detail photograph service.
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