Credited
as the first delta wing plane and the first delta canard, this extremely
streamlined racing machine was created by French designer Roland Nicolas
Payen. It was supposed to receive an in line engine to fit the carefully
polished lines of the plane, but what it got was a radial that had to be
adapted to the existing fuselage, creating a sight that we only thought
could come out of a comic of the era.
Before you ask, yes, it did fly. It never made it to the planes
races or speed record flights, but for sure all involved had a lot of fun.
The first –very cautious- flight was made by Louis Massotte,
chief pilot for Bleriot, on October 1934.
In April 1935 is flown by Jean Meunier. After several flights that
demonstrate the critics the viability of the design, it has a bad landing
and although not very badly damaged it is decided to proceed instead with
other designs.
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images below to see larger images
The
Model:
Some of you may already be familiar with the scratch process, visible in
the photographs, with just an addendum this time: a Fimo fuselage, a
material I am told is similar to Sculpey and other “bakeable”
polymers.
Prop and wheels came from the well stocked shelves of
Aeroclub Models, the basis for the engine was a partial from a left over
of the Northrop Gamma Williams Brother kit, as was the cowl. This last
element had to be “stretched” with the addition of a wide styrene
strip and some made-up valve cover bumps were added, as depicted in the
images. Little stubs of aluminum tube were located in the proper places
and the small oil cooler was added too.
A bit of the
interior was done including the "perforated" seat, an instrument panel
-just a drilled-out styrene sheet, the control column and very simple rudder
pedals. Instrument faces and windows were simulated with Testor's window maker
The exhaust that you can see in front of the cylinders was made of
painted soldering wire.
One funny fact is that while painting it, as I usually do on the balcony, a wind
gust blew the model out of the board, but it landed undamaged . This little
thing really wants to fly!
Gabriel
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images below to see larger images
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