WWI - British Airco Dh.2 & German Fokker Dr.1 - Finish for flight.
Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 11:47 pm
First I want to offer my condolences to the family members on the passing of the last of 4 WWII veterans. Bernard "Bud Bier will be missed. He was the last of our membership Greatest Generation group of Veterans. He was assigned to the "Ghost Army". creating mock-ups to fool the enemy during and after the June 6th D-Day landings. . I inherited 4 planes from the graciousness of his Bristol County RC member son Dr. Jon Bier. I am in the process of finishing them to a full flight condition here. The planes I have are almost done or need repairs. This month a nice article on Bud Bier was printed in the AMA RC magazine. He certainly was a very well educated man that served our country.
About the aircraft.
The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat pusher biplane fighter aircraft which operated during the First World War. It was the second pusher design by aeronautical engineer Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, based on his earlier DH.1 two-seater.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH.2
The model may have been a kit but I do not have the information on the maker if it is a kit. The model was put together evidently for can motor flight with nicad batteries. That was not a good advantage due to the weight and very nominal power. I am not sure it would have flown very well.. That alone shows it was a reasonably older model. The only thing I find that points to maybe it was a kit is the molded vac-formed cockpit area. The foam wings have some indentations that do not show reason why they are there also.
The first part I want to show is the lower wing bottom with landing gear modifications and an ingenious wing stay tensioner. There are other things done in the photo at a different time also. In the photos you will see four small hooks. There is small black elastics on them. The wing stays are pulled snug with the these elastics. The line stays are fed through the wings zig zagged up and down. Works very well.
The other thing of interest is the fold back landing gear set. There are 2 wing dowels in the fuselage not seen in the picture. 2 elastics hold the landing gear and the wing in place after the landing gear is folded in place into the two holes in the trailing edge. The front of the landing gear is bent into loops that fit the forward dowel. That acts like a hinge and anchor. By having this setup it allow the ability to remove the upper and lower wings together after a few screws in the fuselage hull are removed. Other items in the photo are the servos with pull pull lines and the dummy motor talked about next.
About the aircraft.
The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat pusher biplane fighter aircraft which operated during the First World War. It was the second pusher design by aeronautical engineer Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, based on his earlier DH.1 two-seater.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH.2
The model may have been a kit but I do not have the information on the maker if it is a kit. The model was put together evidently for can motor flight with nicad batteries. That was not a good advantage due to the weight and very nominal power. I am not sure it would have flown very well.. That alone shows it was a reasonably older model. The only thing I find that points to maybe it was a kit is the molded vac-formed cockpit area. The foam wings have some indentations that do not show reason why they are there also.
The first part I want to show is the lower wing bottom with landing gear modifications and an ingenious wing stay tensioner. There are other things done in the photo at a different time also. In the photos you will see four small hooks. There is small black elastics on them. The wing stays are pulled snug with the these elastics. The line stays are fed through the wings zig zagged up and down. Works very well.
The other thing of interest is the fold back landing gear set. There are 2 wing dowels in the fuselage not seen in the picture. 2 elastics hold the landing gear and the wing in place after the landing gear is folded in place into the two holes in the trailing edge. The front of the landing gear is bent into loops that fit the forward dowel. That acts like a hinge and anchor. By having this setup it allow the ability to remove the upper and lower wings together after a few screws in the fuselage hull are removed. Other items in the photo are the servos with pull pull lines and the dummy motor talked about next.