Friedrichshafen F.F.49c seaplane civil cabin version- Converted Sierra Models 1/72nd vac

 

After WWI, to the joy and peace of mind of what was left of Europe, many planes were given a better destiny: some passed to private hands as civil sport planes, others were adapted as mail planes, cargo planes or passenger transports, or even as spotters for fisheries. It was not unusual for them to be put to work giving joyrides, or performing diverse forms of flying advertisement. Of course they were de-militarized and adapted to their various functions the best it could be done. Planes that carried passengers were often provided with an enclosure to make the ride more comfortable, whilst the pilot still travelled old style "au plein air". The comforts of those installations varied from being rather Spartan to a level of luxury similar to the one that could be obtained on equivalent ground transportation. Those hastily-adapted machines were the harbingers of a quickly developing industry: air travel, that eventually will evolve into the mega-million business that is today, often giving us the pleasure of being packed like sardines and treated like cattle, with ever-eroding comfort and privileges, and varied shady and deceiving schemes to drain monies from our purses and giving in return shifty and volatile "points" that eventually are worth confetti.

The plane:

The 1920 Norwegian Tiedemann's Friedrichshafen was used to promote the company's products in the form of flying advertisement and joyrides. Some time ago I built the other company plane, a very colorful Hansa Brandenburg W33:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/08/hansa-w33-civil-tiedemann-flying.html

There were many other attractive canopied candidates Friedrichshafen F.F.49c and LFG-built, flown by DLR and other companies, but unfortunately the colors could not be ascertained with exactitude.

In the quickly-developing post-war world these planes changed hands often, and the Tiedemann's plane had a somewhat convoluted story, and appeared in other guises other than the one presented here.

The model:

For this conversion I used a special set from Arctic Decals, applied to a vintage Sierra Scale Models vacuformed kit, but there are in the market more modern resin options, all military unfortunately, that you will also have to convert. The pros and cons of the kit and additional information can be found here in the step-by-step building article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/12/friedrichshafen-ff49c-civil-cabin.html

The kit needed some modifications and the addition of the passenger interior and enclosure, plus other details..

Flying on these planes was a real adventure then, a source of thrill and excitement, a memorable experience. Those -to our contemporary eyes- primitive apparatuses had nonetheless a preeminent role in opening the skies for the times to come.