fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 An unusual but beautiful golden age "flying wing", a build from 3 years ago. The Golden Age of aviation... long distance or endurance flight records were being often beaten again even before the winning machines and pilots could fully enjoy their glory. Amidst this background that is my usual inspiration field, recently three designs caught my attention; they are similar in some regards but have distinctive characteristics. I am referring to the EMSCO (E.M. Smith and Co.) "flying wing", and the Bryant and Vance "flying wings". None of them is, actually, a real flying wing, but the term points out to the absence of a "real" aft fuselage, being this replaced by the twin-boom arrangement. So we have a fuselage pod, usually short, instead of the traditional fuselage to which all other members attach. These designs relied on refined aerodynamics and large, high-aspect ratio wings, associated with high lift capacities and the ability to carry a large fuel load. None of these three were particularly successful, a fact about which I give a rat's bottom. The Bryant had a push-pull twin engine arrangement. The Vance design was quite similar to the EMSCO, but with double vertical stabilizer instead of the single one. There is a lot to be said about these three machines in general and about the EMSCO in particular, but I will say no more; if you are curious, go find about them, they are very attractive and have juicy histories. You won't regret it, but I won't do it for you, enough work is for me to scratchbuild these belles. Suffice to say about the EMSCO is that it was designed by Charles Rocheville (the same designer of the Rocheville Arctic Tern that I built long ago). The EMSCO had two strange aerodynamic devices: the fuselage pod was a duct inside a duct, to channel the inner airflow from the NACA cowl aft of the engine. There was also another device that ingested air, located beneath the wing, and pumped it through slots on the aft upper airfoil, thus creating what we call now a blown-wing. These devices were to help the lift and speed of the plane. They worked very well, according to contemporary accounts. The model: Every scratchbuilding project is a challenge, for diverse reasons. There are always areas or parts that require some head-scratching, and that's part of the charm of scratchbuilding. In this case there is not even a plan, or a meager 3-view. So I had to work on a plan, or better said, a building sketch. Once the plan was more or less ready, work began on the model, and there a second challenge appeared: the fuselage pod, which was, as said above, a duct inside a duct. The inner duct surrounded the pilot and copilot stations, which were located therefore in a sort of bathtub. The air entered at the front of the NACA cowl, passed through the fuselage main section and then the aft cone which acted like a Venturi device and then the air was expelled at the narrow end. My thanks to Lars Opland and Alain Bourret who provided some additional useful pieces of information. Mika Jernfors came to the rescue with the decals I commissioned from his outfit, Arctic Decals. Enjoy your EMSCO flying wing 28 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toryu Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 Super funny model! I never heard about this airplane. Looks just great + nice photography. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Another one I had no idea even existed… Beautiful scratch project! Kind regards, Joachim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza l Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Very interesting story and a nice model to. gazza l 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 That is a true jewel in your collection! Regards J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonix Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 Just foud this - a super model which I am sure was a real challenge to build. Congratulations on making such a first class model of a difficult and obscure subject. Thanks too for the background information - always a bonus with your builds. P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 Ho Moa Wow what an unusual aircraft that is very pleasing to the eye. I like the look of this very much and your model is stunning. Great work as usual. Lovely. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Excellent work and a beautiful result. Great presentation and the photography is superb. You're in a class by yourself and you deserve all the honors that come with that distinction. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said: Ho Moa Wow what an unusual aircraft that is very pleasing to the eye. I like the look of this very much and your model is stunning. Great work as usual. Lovely. Chris Thanks Chris I enjoyed building this one a lot. A lot of charm in that design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 3 hours ago, SAT69 said: Excellent work and a beautiful result. Great presentation and the photography is superb. You're in a class by yourself and you deserve all the honors that come with that distinction. Very grateful for your kind words. I wish I would deserve a tithe of it! 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Lovely build Moa and another off my radar. I do like that sepia shot . I hope the tail control lines remained safe on the real aircraft as they look very exposed! Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 12 hours ago, Britman said: Lovely build Moa and another off my radar. I do like that sepia shot . I hope the tail control lines remained safe on the real aircraft as they look very exposed! Keith Thanks, Keith! I agree, although exposed control cables were very common (the Ford Trimotor had its share of them), these have a lot of unsupported length! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 How beautiful! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 2 minutes ago, John Masters said: How beautiful! It was love at first sight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Wow! I don't remember seeing this model (or aeroplane) before - great job on it Claudio, as per usual! I wish I could think of some bizarre civilian Golden Age aircraft for you to do, but if I do you probably already know about it, and have very likely already built it. Best Regards, Jason 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Learstang said: Wow! I don't remember seeing this model (or aeroplane) before - great job on it Claudio, as per usual! I wish I could think of some bizarre civilian Golden Age aircraft for you to do, but if I do you probably already know about it, and have very likely already built it. Best Regards, Jason Thanks, Jason! After decades of gathering bizarre stuff, chances are that at least I have a folder on them 😄 Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Stunning, beautiful build and presentation ! Wulfman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Wulfman said: Stunning, beautiful build and presentation ! Wulfman Thanks, Wulfman! It is indeed an unusual and particularly stylized design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 and yes, that sepia photograph is gorgeous. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Gary Brantley said: and yes, that sepia photograph is gorgeous. Thanks, Gary! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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