Savoia Marchetti S 55X flying boat replica

WOW! As a wooden speedboat restorer, the pix of the woodworking are fab! A teeny bit more complex structures than mine too.......

 

cool stuff

 

Wooden airframes were the epitome of the art. With reliable and long lived adhesives and protection from moisture (mold) they would last for a very long time. AND, wooden structures do not suffer from fatigue like metal, the original multi fiber construction and with natural resilience. Consider the Hughes H-1 flying boat called incorrectly "The Spruce Goose". It was constructed of birch, but spruce is very strong for its weight and lacks pitch pockets like fir and hemlock. I imagine that there was quite a bit used in the airplane.

 

Lockheed Vega first molded composite plane.

I was reading the the replica mosquitos big difference to Wartime ones is the modern adhesive that are not susceptible to moisture.

In wooden boat land many are now built with a fiberglass epoxy sheathing, no more varnish and seams.

Wood fiber is an amazing material. It also has great vibration and sound absorption, something modern composites can’t match.

Still mold and moisture is an issue.

Seems like in USA an Uk wooden boatbuilding skills are on the rebound.
But building a complex aircraft is a whole other ballgame.

It is amazing though how lost machines can be accurately recreated. I also like that aircraft and boat people are not snobs about recreations , these are after all industrial products built in series so inherently replicable. car people have an issue with this.

 

In WW1, the German's built two fighters with molded plywood fuselages: Albatross and Pfalz D3. In 1920, Alan Loughead built the Loughead Sport biplane with a molded plywood fuselage formed in a concrete mold with a pressure bladder. Copied from the WW1 German techniques.

 

More or less how composite construction works today? The difference is we have more durable/stable materials.

Didnt they use a surviving vega in the 50's to test radar returns.

Wiley posts vega is in the smithsonian, I wonder how it has held up under this optimum conditions.

Incredible aircraft.

In general ww1 was an amazing period of tech inovation, even cars just before and after the war tries so many things, DOHC 4 valve cylinder heads.

 

Thanks Bob.... didn't know that.... was a few years before he changed the spelling of his and the companies' names to Lockheed, for simplicity.

 

I didn't mean to come across as an EX SPURT (a Drip under pressure). I am full of useless information. The Mosquito is another fine example of molded plywood construction. The Germans tried their own version of the Mosquito but unbelievably their adhesives failed and so did the airframe.

 

The blockades meant the Germans were missing a lot of strategic materials and liquids during both world wars. Possibly why the adhesives failed. In WW-I, there was a shortage of castor oils, the primary lubricant for rotary engines, which really affected the reliability of Oberursel and Siemens-Halske rotaries.

 

My mother used to lubricate my system with castor oil some times when I was a kid. Made things run a lot better.

 

I recalled that I flew a Timm N2T-1 that also had a molded plywood fuselage. It was a very nice flying airplane with a Cont 220 in it. I would have liked to own one because it was such a pleasant airplane.

 

11' diameter 3 bladed props (2) machined out of billet aluminum. This is a wonderful project. The workmanship looks great.