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Post by bearcat on Apr 3, 2010 15:42:19 GMT -5
I am officially a sucker for Golden Age airplanes, including the air racers of the 1930's. The Liard Super Solution, the Gee Bee, the Mr. Mulligan, and the Weddell Williams Model 44.
Now where am I gonna put them all? I already almost need a small hangar.
I really would like to build one. I'm thinking of a real wood beauty, 54" wingspan and 44" long. Although electric motor power would be the easiest and what I'm most familiar with, I must admit that the gas versions are so realistic and cool. Have a look (and listen) at these two videos.
And this one is a huge model. The size of a car. It's got an actual 5 cylinder radial engine. The sound of this one flying is music.
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Post by Lt Swiss on Apr 3, 2010 18:30:28 GMT -5
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Post by bearcat on Apr 4, 2010 18:08:04 GMT -5
Hey, this is a great model company that I didn't know about before. They have the 54" 1/6 scale Model 44 (pictured above), along with many other Golden Age planes. The amount of wood in this plane is very impressive. Looks strong. It's a new kit, but similar kits are about $130 bucks from this company. That's not bad. www.tnjmodels.rchomepage.com/The Weddell Williams Model 44 is also sold by AerodromeRC and is a very similar scale, 52.5" wingspan. But their kit is a lot pricier. It's $184. I've compared both these kits as far as their construction, and they're about equal. So price wins. It looks like an advanced build, though. Not very simple. T&J Models' Model 44 has a very attractive black and red scheme. But I think I'll still do the Gilmore white and red scheme on mine.  |
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Post by Lt Swiss on Apr 5, 2010 0:17:23 GMT -5
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Post by bearcat on Apr 5, 2010 14:58:13 GMT -5
Yeah, that's the third paint scheme. From what I've read, there seem to have only been 3 or maybe 4 Weddel-Williams racers built. The most successful one was the white and red Gilmore Red Lion that Roscoe Turner won in for two years before being beaten by a Mr. Mulligan (another plane I like a lot).
Then there is the black and red Miss Patterson racer I showed above, and then the black and white one you just showed. But something I read in my research seemed to indicate that Roscoe Turner might have had another Model 44, and that one was all gold.
It's really hard to find information on this subject, and photos from that age were black and white. My best bet is to find a good book on Golden Age Air Racing.
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Post by Lt Swiss on Apr 5, 2010 16:57:16 GMT -5
ROSCOE TURNERRoscoe Turner was probably the greatest showman in the world of the daredevil pilots of the 1920s and 1930s. He was first and foremost a great pilot. During his career, he won six major racing trophies, including both the prestigious Bendix Trophy and Thompson Trophy. ROSCOE DESIGNED HIS OWN COSTUME   The symbol of the Gilmore Oil Company was a lion. So, Turner went out and bought himself a baby lion cub who he named Gilmore. Turner took Gilmore everywhere he went as a passenger in the airplane. Read more at Suite101: Colonel Roscoe Turner: America's Greatest Showman Pilot aviation-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/colonel_roscoe_turner#ixzz0kGWT6306       Roscoe Turner with fellow racer Bennie Howard at the National Air Races in Cleveland, 1935   www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/turner/EX22.htm
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Post by bearcat on Apr 5, 2010 21:57:17 GMT -5
Looks like his Number 29, the gold one, went through some changes over the years. The full color pic shows a different cowl than the black and white photos show. Plus his paint job on #29 changes here and there too. Still, the gold one is a nice looking plane. Not sure where I could get those decals made up though, but it's a looker.
The number 121 looks like it remained unchanged all these years.
And that's the one with the famous Gilmore red lion on it.
When Gilmore died in 1952, he was stuffed and mounted. He is currently at the Smithsonian in a cooler.
Roscoe Turner was also quite a patriot. I read that he had a flying school and 3000 WWII pilots went through it.
I have GOT to get a book on the subject. There have been a LOT of great Americans I would have liked to have known. The only way to get to know them today is to study their history.
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Post by bearcat on Apr 7, 2010 9:57:27 GMT -5
If anyone builds this plane, you should note that the model I talked about above (black and red one) has the interior of the fuselage completely open to the front cowl air intake, which is, by the way, fully functional. In studying the build of the model, I noticed there is no air escape in the rear of the fuselage, and the builder did complain that power has to be maintained throughout flight and landings. He thought it was the wing wires. I don't think so.
It would have a lot more aerodynamic drag because of the huge fuselage air intake acting like a big parachute than it would those tiny little wing wires.
So when I build this plane, I will close off that air intake into the fuselage and have all air route out through the secondary cowl (behind the front engine cowl). That would be an excellent place to keep the ESC because of how well it will cool.
That said, I think I will make my version of this plane electric. I've got a big motor that should make this a nice powerful plane.
I'll save a 4-stroke gas project for an AVG P-40 Flying Tiger. That has the perfect cowl to hide a big gas motor.
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