The replica portrays the plane as it was while located in the USA in 1923 at
Curtiss Field, being displayed and flown for the general public, during events
and demonstrations.
The plane was originally exported to create an airline, but
the USA school of doing business/trade (for those unfamiliar: "we will
push our stuff into your market and will not be very happy to allow your
products to compete with ours in our own market") prevented that, and the
plane was confiscated, the project torpedoed, and much later the plane was
released to Curtiss, where it became little more than a curious prop.
Changes are noticeable during this plane's life, in its
marks, details and color. You may find photos of it (earlier in its life) as
G-5414 with radio masts on nose an tail (reputedly one of the first planes to carry
a Marconi radio), and as -an also early- G-EAAF with different placement and
size for the regs and some color changes on the extended cabin and nose area.
This is a conversion of an O/400 into a O/700, for both, the
original plane, and the model, which started as a rather not very enticing, outdated,
Airfix effort of many decades ago, and nothing like the fine products Airfix
cranks out nowadays.
The represented plane itself as said was a converted O/400
that was upgraded to a O/700 standard.
For those -understandably- remiss to read the very long
building post, this conversion implies having to delete all military-related
detail, produce a full-length passenger cabin interior with bathroom included, all
the windows and door, noticeably extended engine gondolas, a new fuselage front
and nose, and several minor adjustments and changes.
You have, needless to say, to commit to extensive research
and a long build.
I can state, very frankly, that this was a much more
protracted and complicated voyage that I ever thought, and my dreams of doing
at least one more in civil guise are absolutely dismissed. At least until a
better kit appears, something I am not inclined in the least to believe that
will ever happen.
The WiP is where many details and clarifications con be
found, so perhaps will be a good read if you have an interest in using the old
and very dated Airfix kit for a civil conversion (of which there were very
many, some that need just little changes on the kit, by the way):
There were also minimally modified machines that were used
for civil transport during the armistice, another bunch for the European
routes, and even some that were sold to India
and China.
So you are not condemned anymore to build a "bloody
paralyzer", and instead can explore the glamorous dawn of civil passenger
transport and airliner industry.
I wanted to take some photos with figures, but the boarding ladder I had was too tall. Another one was made for the purpose:
A few more images to give a sense of scale:
It seems that her ladyship is having some trouble climbing that stepladder. Must be the sherry:
Looking at the photos, as it sometimes happens, I discovered a missing item.
In this case the Pitot:
There, now back to the box, good bye!:
Superb! One of your most impressive projects, Claudio. I have just enjoyed re-reading eh build log as well. Cheers, Mark
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark!
DeleteCheers