Scratchbuilt 1/72 Dayton-Wright racer - 1920

Gallery Article by Gabriel Stern on June 22 2010

 

   Ideas and available technology don’t always go side by side.
   The ever-reducing wing area of racers needed a solution to avoid high speeds when they weren’t desirable, i.e. on landings.
   One solution is a variable camber mechanism, intended to deal with the speed envelope of a plane making the wing as efficient as possible through the whole range of those speeds, especially during take-off and landings, when slats and flaps are deployed to increase lift and be able to fly at low speed without stalling.
   The variable camber mechanism of the Dayton-Wright RB-1 racer (RB for Rhinehart-Baumann, pilot and designer, respectively), a wonderful concept, didn’t quite make it in real life, adding mechanical complexity, weight, drag and unreliability to an otherwise sound idea. Same for the retractable landing gear. The wing was solid light wood further lightened by way of partial carving. A very strong structure no doubt, and the fuselage was of monocoque construction.
   But fellows, this was 1920! and those ideas were very good ones.
   The plane was built to compete on the Gordon Bennett prize, and those technical features were implemented to improve performance, and although the plane quit the race, later in time in the aviation realm they demonstrated their value.
   The machine was powered by a Hall-Scott L-6 inline engine and had the pilot hidden inside the fuselage with limited vision, a la Ryan NYP.

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   There are a number of photos showing alterations on the plane. If you are making a model of it, look at your references. The model was Mattelized from basswood masters, and a styrene sheet endoskeleton was built –see images-. Interior details and painting were done before gluing the fuselage shells. A prop wood was carved, stained, and a photoetched boss added.
    After some pondering I decided to cut the very front section of the nose and build a separate unit made of two laminations. Aeroclub white metal wheels of the proper style and diameter were used. I made a sill for the windows inside the fuselage, so those could be added at a later time. For them, masks were cut and laid on clear plastic. Alu color was sprayed, and then the windows cut leaving a frame, as seen in the images, One pic shows the other side of the clear plastic as I was making sure that no paint got under the masks.
    An alu soda can was used to cut the very tiny control horns. Decals were home made and a decal stack was used to represent the radiator, again as per in-process images.
    As it is some times the case, all the plans and 3 views I could get a hand on differed in some regard from the original photos, in a few cases on rather important details.

   This visionary design, although not smiled upon by the goddess Fortune, is an example of cutting edge thinking on the very early stages of aviation development, and points out to the important roll that air races, record flights, good will flights and aviation meetings played on that wonderful era (not in vain called “Golden”) of aviation.

Gabriel Stern

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Photos and text © by Gabriel Stern