By now, as you probably assumed, we are well into the
foggiest regions of scratch-building.
Not only there are no kits, but there are also no plans or
three-views. Fortunately a few images
can be grabbed here and there, and, most important, fellow modelers can guide
you when the light becomes too dim.
To say that the Johnson’s Uni-plane of 1934 was once offered
by his builder to a hamburger company to make flying advertisement will definitely
make the case. The builder, though, couldn’t: due to an unfortunate crash upon
take off -one in a series of them, if I may add- sponsorship was unplugged.
At a mere 14 feet span (about 4.27 meters) massive it is
not, but it has charm. A Church Marathon engine of 42 hp took the plane to the
air, but since in its first incarnation it had only control in two axis (no
ailerons), it was extremely difficult to make it stay there. Further
development included a single vertical tail and the missing ailerons, but this
lovely machine stubbornly refused to stay aloft. It made, though, a series of
straight-line long hops and eventually –err, after some crashes- reached
plane’s heaven, wherever that may be.
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