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I was planning to build a Finnish Buffalo in this GB, but while leisure-browsing wikipedia I found the following image which lured me away from the chosen path. I present Flygfisken (image courtesy wiki): This thing has it all: it is quirky, has complicated rigging, a tailplane raised on sticks above the fuselage and a rotary engine suspended only by strings and struttery with an assortment of pipes going up to the fuel tank on the upper wing and down into the cockpit. And skis! It also has pedigree. It is a Donnet Leveque flying boat Type A (or C, opinions differ) first bought from France in 1913 by the Flying Baron Carl Cederström. It was called the Flying fish, a nick-name its paintjob likely helped to popularize: https://digitaltmuseum.org/021016340773/carl-cederstroms-flygbat-flygfisken-vid-loudden-1913-flygmaskin-av-typ Although that is tempting, I shall build it in its snowmobile configuration. Cederström sold it to the Navy where it got designation L II but retained its popular nickname. As the designation implies this was the second Donnet Leveque of the Navy - the first was bought by the excess money from a public donation that was collected to buy a [pocket] battleship (the government had decided it couldn’t afford any, so a public fund raiser was started - and the people decided it could indeed not only afford a battleship, but also some aeroplanes, but I digress). The Navy made good use of the plane until they donated it to the Marine museum in 1919. It was recently restored by volunteers. There is one mystery. The wings have one extra pair of interplane struts now compared to in 1913. My guess is that this is not an error by the restorers, but is an addition made back in the days after a crash, which according to what I’ve read, required extensive rebuild. The problem is is, I need to find the dimensions of these new wings.- 115 replies
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