In the continuous quest to explore the boundaries of design several individuals came up with strange but efficient solutions that in some cases were years ahead of conventional thinking.
Romanian designer Filip Mihail had some advanced, farsighted ideas. He was unfortunately ignored by the retrograde, shortsighted authorities of the time. His concepts were developed with the little help he could receive and came to full fruition in 1933, when the Stabiloplan IV was successfully flown. The flying wing-cum-kiddie car performed extremely well, so well that was ignored, as it is some times the case with good things. It is of note the fore-aft movement of the wing quoted by sources in order to obtain pitch control.
I couldn’t resist the urge of building this little gem from the Golden Age, but faced a common challenge in dealing with this kind of subjects: lack of sufficient information. Still pending is a confirmed color for the flying surfaces, which appear somewhat dark in the available photos. A sort of calico color was used in the model but the above-mentioned surfaces were attached with just a very small dab of white glue, in order to be removed easily if a confirmed color pops-up in the future. The fuselage is showing a varnished wood finish in the images, which was achieved using an acrylic orange base and crimson red and a smidgeon of black oil paint applied in streaks with a flat brush in a medium consistency. Some interior was built to spice up the bathtub-like fuselage. Aeroclub Models wheels were used to match the originals and the rest is the usual liberal use of styrene raw material and bits of metal here and there. The curved windshield is a piece of bent clear plastic from a blister and the windows were made with Testor’s liquid window maker.
Together with the recently finished Henri Mignet’s Pou-du-ciel and other pocket-size design on the cases they make a group that is funnily dwarfed by contemporary cousins of normal mass.
I just can’t but love its
cartoon-like appearance.
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