Darren Bitzer brought in his latest acquisition, a 98 inch span scale model of a Schweizer TG-2, a WW2 primary trainer for the USAAF glider forces.

The full size Schweizer’s were built by the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation of Elmira, NY.

These were often shipped to Palmdale, California for primary training before the pilots moved up to the Waco assault gliders used on D-Day.

Darren had found the model on Craig’s List nearby and picked it up. He estimates that it had been built in the late 1980’s and had spent most of its life as a display. He is upgrading the structure and controls so he can fly it this summer!

David P. Andersen Aircraft Designer Extraordinaire let us in on his next project, the Romanian I.A.R. 80 WW2 fighter in giant scale!

This aircraft is unique in that is has moments and a wing platform very similar to 1980’s RC pattern plane so David speculates that it should fly well!

An oddity for this modern looking WW2 fighter is that although it has retracting main gear, it is equipped with a tail skid!

David wallpapered the church hall with his draft plans that give us an idea as to how he generates these great designs in such a short time. The fuse and wing were laid out conventionally on the drawing board.  He generated the airfoils using Model CAD and printed them to scale from his personal printer, then cut them out to paste them into the plans.  He did the same thing enlarging the dimensional drawing of the DA-100 to full size, then pasting it into the drawing of the fuselage.

The fuse will be built in (2) pieces and joined using (4) bolts, just as the full size aircraft had!  The fuse will be offered as a fiberglass package from Jeff Micko once David gives him the plugs.  The landing gear is drawn on the plans for those wishing to detail them to perfection, but David tells us that any giant scale P-51 retracts should work fine!  There are many unusual paint schemes for this aircraft as Romania had been allied with the French, then the Germans, and finally the Russians at the end of the war so you can have a very unique scale WW2 fighter!

David tells us that a prototype should be flying this summer!

Addition Info: www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=622

Duane Dahnert displayed his hand drawn plans for his design of a 1922 Bellanca CF model.  Belanca had built a prototype with the idea of entering the new airline service.

The cabin is fully enclosed for the comfort

of the passengers but the pilot sits in an open cockpit at the trailing edge of the wing! Burr that sounds chilly!

The prototype survived and is currently displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at the Dulles facility.  Duane plans to build it with a wingspan of approx. 56” and power it with an electric system.

Duane also shared samples of the 3M 1/64th thick mahogany ply-wood he intends to cover the fuselage with.  We look forward to seeing more on the project!

Phil Schwartz and Jeff Quesenberry displayed the rebuilt Hawker Sea Fury wing for Phil’s repair project. Phil had built the cockpit for Jeff’s Vindicator so Jeff rebuilt the Sea Fury wing in exchange.

The original had electric retracts but Phil is replacing them with Sierra Giant Scale pneumatic landing gear. Phil promised that we’d see the Sea Fury flying again this summer!

Cal Branton displayed one of the wing spars built by Kirk Hall for the giant scale Fokker Dr1.  The first example is built up from spruce & plywood and on another they had tried an aluminum extrusion.

No major updates on the project yet.  Will it be ready for the summer of ’16 or will it be ready for the centennial of the Armistice Day?

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