Balsa wood and tissue covered model aeroplanes. Though somewhat fragile for the numerous "unplanned arrivals" we all suffer sooner or later, it cannot be denied that these vintage models have an aura of grace and elegance about them. Maybe its their butterfly like fragility, or the light of the sun shining through their tissue covering, revealing their complex spider's web of inner trusses and braces. Or perhaps its the fact that these models hail from a time that seems almost a universe away now . There were no quadcopters or ultra efficient lipo batteries seventy or eighty years ago. It was just you, a free flight model and the entirety of the sky.
(Sydney Camm, designer of the famous Hawker Hurricane, with a free flight model, c.1915)
A few years ago, I had the pleasure to visit Le Bourget Air and Space Museum, a few minutes outside Paris. This was a fantastic place, full of unique and fascinating aircraft, many of them developed in France. In one section of the museum, was something wonderful to me as an aeromodeller. It was an entire exhibition, devoted to vintage model aeroplanes. There was even some of the first radio transmitters, hailing from the 1950s, which were mainly single channel affairs. I instantly decided then and there, to build my own tissue covered model and fly it!
As a matter of fact, the model which I would eventually chose, would be a scale model of a full size aircraft I saw at Le Bourget. I selected a Guillows 1:30 scale model of a Focke Wulf Fw 190.
For those of you not familiar with this German warbird, the Focke Wulf Fw190 was a radial engined fighter aircraft, which served alongside the now legendary Messerschmitt Bf 109 in the Luftwaffe for the duration of the Second World War. As a mattter of interest, the French airforce operated the Fw 190 for some time postwar, which I suspect the Fw 190 in Le Bourget did.
However, even though the tissue covered model I constructed shared the gorgeous looks of the full size, it was not really suitable for a first flyable balsa wood and tissue model. The low wing made the model have next to nil rolling stability ( a must for a free flight model) .In addition to this, the short nose of the A varient, which I was modelling, proved to be impossible to balance correctly.
As a result, the model proved unflyable, as the C.G was too far back (even with 100g of nose weight). The model was given up on, and I moved on to other projects.
Flash forward a few years. Being well versed in Flite Test and Experimental Airlines building techniques, I decided to design my own model, the Eala Emma (links to relevant articles at the end of article) out of foamboard. In terms of durability, foamboard is hard to beat. It is not susceptible to punctures in the way a tissue covered structure is. Covered in packing or duct tape, its nearly indestructible ( trust me I know this to be a fact!)
(My Ft Tiny Trainer nose after more than 25 hard collisions with the ground. Not pretty, but still structurally sound)
However, after successfully flying my free flight version of the Tiny Trainer LINK HERE , I began to wonder, "what would this be like with a traditional balsa wood and tissue model". I wanted to challenge myself , to get outside my comfort zone of foamboard and tape aeroplanes, into (almost!) uncharted territory.
Here is my short adventure on finding and selecting a model to build. For me, shooting this video where I shot it, proved quite a learning experience for me as an amateur filmmaker. I hope you enjoy it.
I went with the model I selected for a number of reasons. Firstly the high wing configuration, means the model will inherently want to return to level flight. This is a major bonus for a model with no external control. Also as I mentioned in my video, the forward air controllers (FACs) of both the Korean and Vietnam wars fascinate me. Flying at extremely low altitudes, these pilots had to brave intense enemy fire in little more than civilian light aircraft, all the while directing air strikes and artillery fire on hostiles below them. There job was made even more stressful by the knowledge that if they made one mistake directing fire on enemy soldiers, friendly troops on the ground could potentially end up dead, either from enemy action or friendly fire.
A great book on Forward Air Controllers during the Vietnam War, is "Naked in Da Nang" by Lieutenant Mike Jackson. Jackson gives a fantastic, no frills account of what it was like to fly as a FAC during the Vietnam War. The title of the book, is I think, a clever metaphor to how Jackson felt flying these missions. Flying in a Cessna O-2 ( a modified Cessna Skymaster civilian aircraft ), he had little protection against the threats he faced, from Ak-47 fire to Sa-7 surface to air missiles. Jackson also described the O-2 as being a major improvement over the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog ( the plane I'm modelling), which also served in Vietnam.
( Cessna O-1 in typical Vietnam era camouflage scheme)
I couldn't mention the Cessna O-1 in the Vietnam War, without mentioning one odd but heroic story. In 1975, when South Vietnam finally fell to the communist North, Republic of Vietnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly put his wife and five children in an O-1 Bird Dog, and escaped from South Vietnam, now rapidly being overrun by the North. After flying out to the American carrier Midway, he dropped a note, requesting the flight deck be cleared. Midway's commanding officer Captain Chambers ordered the flight deck to be cleared, even though it was full of multi million dollar helicopters. These were pushed overboard allowing Buang-Ly to land safely.
( Buang-Ly landing on the Midway, 1975)
This is just one of the many amazing stories the O-1 Bird Dog was involved in, during both the Korean War in the 1950s and the later Vietnam War. I am pleased to be modelling such a unique and historic aircraft, and cannot wait to take you with me and show you what I learn.
Thank you for reading this article. If you want to see more content like this, please check out my Youtube channel . And don't forget to rate this article and tell me what you would like to see ( content wise ) in the future.
Wishing you all enjoyable flying,
Finn.
Image credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Camm#/media/File:Sydney_Camm_1915.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190#/media/File:FW_190_F.jpg
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