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De Havilland Australia Sun Moth - A One Wing Biplane - FINISHED

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robunos:
Okay, here's my contribution.



De Havilland Australia Sun Moth

This aeroplane was designed (in Australia, De Havillands in England weren't interested in the job, they wanted to sell Fox Moths and Dragons) in 1932 for use by the Australian Aerial Medical Service (the  'Flying Doctors' ) following their nationwide expansion that year, as a supplement to, and eventual replacement for, their currently used De Havilland D.H.50s, and also as a replacement for the RAAF's ageing Westland Wapiti aircraft.
For use by the 'Flying Doctors', the plan was for the aircraft to be procured by the RAAF, then leased to the AAMS at a nominal rate. A prototype was built and successfully tested, but the required funding was not forthcoming from the Australian Government, and the AAMS continued their operations with commercial aircraft leased from various airlines.
The wings, tail surfaces and undercarriage were copies of the then standard Moth components, enlarged as required to suit the new aircraft. The fuselage was a welded steel tubing framework, covered, in thin plywood, with an inner ply box forming the cabin area. The cabin was lit by portholes in the sides. Large doors were also fitted, to allow the loading of stretcher cases and large freight items. The open cockpit was forward of the cabin, and although the aeroplane was designed to be flown by a single pilot, a jump seat was fitted to allow the carriage of a second crewman, for instance a navigator.
The aeroplane was intended to be able to land in small, restricted spaces, in order to get as close as possible to patients and casualties. To this end, it was fitted with full span combined camber-changing flaps and ailerons, (the term 'flaperons' hadn't been invented yet) as well as leading edge slats. Also fitted were balloon tyres to allow operation from rough and soft surfaces.
Power was supplied by a uncowled Bristol Jupiter. The whole aircraft was designed for ease of repair and maintenance away from established bases. The aircraft was designed to carry a pilot and up to four other people.
The aircraft was named 'Sun Moth', after the day flying moths native to the Australian bush lands.


The idea for this Build came about because I needed a pair of 1/48 DH Moth wings for another project. This meant that I had an almost complete Moth kit left, so I invented the 'Sun Moth' to use up the parts. I was originally going to use the Moth kit fuselage, but it wasn't 'right' for this Build, so I adapted a 1/48 Fokker D.VII fuselage I had spare . . .


EDIT: story updated to reflect the aeroplane being re-designed.


cheers,
Robin.

robunos:

Okay . . .
Here we go. Here are the D.VII fuselage halves.





I removed all the moulded on details, the filled the strut holes with scrap.





Next I cut away the top decking,





then I started to build up the new fuselage. Not finished yet, as I'm designing it as I go along . . .   :o    ;D







cheers,
Robin.

robunos:

Okay . . .
Update time !
After assembling the fuselage, I painted the inside dark grey as usual,





Then added the fuselage top, the step at the tail end is for the tailplane seat,





then I cut out the cockpit. You can just see on the fuselage side where I've sketched out the arrangement of the portholes and door.





Finally for this time, Moth bits !







That's All For Now, Stay Tuned . . .


cheers,
Robin.

Robomog:
This is all shaping up rather nicely   :smiley: :smiley:

Mog
>^-.-^<

apophenia:
Most intriguing. I could see this being an early '30s replacement for an earlier, DH.9-based flying ambulance.

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