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Mattioni Botte Volante, scratchbuilt 1/72nd


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Another flying barrel model built 7 years ago

 

I bet that the first images of this project reminded you immediately of the Caproni-Stipa. More seasoned modelers perhaps made a connection too with the Caproni-Campini.

If you have guessed, then you know that ducted fan is the keyword here.

The Mattioni "Botte Volante" (Flying Barrel as it was christened by Firenze’s locals) imposes its evident beauty upon the modeling masses. Rumors that it was used to hang and dry the laundry, or to smoke herring are not only disrespectful but also spurious.

I found an article on this plane in a somewhat old Italian Aerofan magazine (issue 2 1978). There is not much, but I was able to draw a 3 view based on the photos of the first incarnation of the “Mattioni Botte Volante”. This first avatar didn’t really fly, due to concerns about the tail surfaces ability to effectively control the plane that arose during taxiing trials. The plane was adjusted with some modifications and then successfully took to the air. More experimentation went on, and about four or five configurations were tried. The plane had a “flower petals” arrangement inside the tube-like fuselage, used to control the amount of air passing through (not dissimilar to some contemporary jet engine exhausts).

I love this first prototype stage of the plane because of its bizarre yet stunning looks.

I have already modeled the Stipa, so the Botte Volante would be a good companion. By the way, I also have the venerable Delta 2 Caproni-Campini kit, and although it is a bit rough, I plan to build it some day too.

The article I mentioned on Aerofan seems to have a few inaccuracies. First, it is extremely unlikely that the span was 6 meters as quoted, since comparing the size of the people on the photos with the wings you find the span to be obviously larger than that, at least by 1.5 meters.

Then it states that the engine was a 7 cylinder one, when in photos again you can easily count nine cylinders. I won’t be too hard on the writer, since perhaps he was referring to other sources’ data or other versions or trials of the same plane.

No decals were necessary for this one, which was a welcome break.

I think my Italian friends, aviation writer Paolo Miana and scholar Fabrizio D’Isanto might enjoy this one.

For what I could gather online there was recently an exhibit/tribute in Italy centered on this plane and its creator, Antonio Mattioni. One of the brochures read:

“I nostri sogni e desideri cambiano il mondo”

(Our dreams and wishes change the world)

Karl Popper

 

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Lovely model.  

 

I guess the original must have been aerodynamically sound, or at least OK-ish, but this (and the Caproni) look, to me, like the sort of thing that only someone heroically brave or utterly moonstruck would consider flying.

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Excellent model and very intersting subject indeed. On the contrary to Sitpa-Caproni I have not heard about it before. Thanks for education! I have found the article in wiki on her https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botte_volante. It is in Italian only but google translator can help a lot... So it is first variant, made in 1923 :)

Regards

J-W
 

Edited by JWM
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3 hours ago, TheLurker said:

to me, like the sort of thing that only someone heroically brave or utterly moonstruck would consider flying.

Well, Lurker, I guess we should be grateful that scores of aviation pioneers, inventors and pilots thought differently.

Otherwise we would still be watching the birds and wondering 😉

 

 

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9 hours ago, Jonners said:

(Would it be unkind to suggest that it looks like a toilet roll tube with wings?)

Can it be a clue to how the whole idea came to the engineer's mind?

 

A great build Moa! A unique subject with great attention to details! Love to see how all those control surfaces wiring is done inside the tube. No need to do a cutway to understand how it all worked :) 

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Hello Moa,

Who else could have dared to commit this build ???

great job as usual !

Toilet paper rool ?? Well, it remind the time where as a kid, I saved this empty TP rolls for making aircrafts with it :rofl2:

Did'nt know that someone as did it in the flesh...

Once again, Congratulations !!

Sincerely.

CC

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Curious to know how you constructed the tube and it’s very realistic ribbing. It looked like you use PVC pipe in the previous Caproni-Stipa build I assume that you had to resort to epoxy or CA glue on that one.  Both very sculptural. 

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32 minutes ago, Sprueloose said:

Curious to know how you constructed the tube and it’s very realistic ribbing. It looked like you use PVC pipe in the previous Caproni-Stipa build I assume that you had to resort to epoxy or CA glue on that one.  Both very sculptural. 

Hi Sprueloose

The Mattioni is just that, an engraved (embossed) and rolled styrene sheet.

But the Stipa had a very pronounced Venturi shape inside (two unequal conical funnels attached by their tips, sort of) in its fuselage, so I needed to start with very thick walls and carve them to obtain the right longitudinal section. I pinned an pegged all the attached elements with CA IIRC.

There was a lot of PVC sanding dust involved...

 

Edited by Moa
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