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Author Topic: Paring down a Portly Pole  (Read 1032 times)

Offline apophenia

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Paring down a Portly Pole
« on: June 29, 2021, 07:40:57 AM »
Looking for a bit of a challenge, I decided to have a go at the LWS Żubr. To my eyes, the Zubr is one of the ugliest aircraft of its era (it was also a structural mess). RW, more powerful engines were needed and the wooden wings had to be redesigned and strengthen ... to avoid shedding their skins in flight  :o

So, I thought, why not redesign that astonishingly hideous fuselage at the same time? The upper view represents the P&W Wasp Junior-powered LWS-4 prototype. That image is not mine, it is from a relatively poor-quality reproduction of a profile by the great Zygmunt Szeremeta.

At the bottom is my retouch - which I'm calling the LWS-8 Żubr III. Fuselage height has been greatly reduced and the cockpit canopy suppressed. The semi-retractable turret has also been redesigned and moved forward. In the main view, this turret is shown retracted, the scrap view shows the new turret fully extended. (A detail shows the KM wz.37 'Szczeniak' flexible gun). [1]

Other changes are a completely redesigned nose (but retaining the original's odd gun mount). A new ventral gun position has been introduced for the radio operator to man. The ventral KM wz.37 is mounted on a fairing which can be lowered to give the radio operator a better field of fire.

Still butt ugly? Yeah, kinda. Oh well, at least it is a little sleeker ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LWS-6_%C5%BBubr

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[1] The nickname 'Szczeniak' translates as 'Puppy' ... for absolutely no reason I can imagine
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Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Paring down a Portly Pole
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2021, 03:24:36 PM »
The tail is really out of place on your LWS-8 Żubr III. :-\

That big lump needs to be seriously trimmed down & a long fillet fairing fitted between the tail & the fuselage, then she'd look almost normal. ;)
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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Paring down a Portly Pole
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2021, 02:02:22 AM »
 :smiley:
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Offline apophenia

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Re: Paring down a Portly Pole
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2021, 08:37:08 AM »
Quote from: Old Wombat on June 29, 2021, 03:24:36 PM
The tail is really out of place on your LWS-8 Żubr III...

Too true about the tail. I just enlarged the original to handle the added power. RW, there was an LWS-6 variant with a straight fin and less roundy rudder. There was also a PZL-30 version with spindly-looking twin fins and rudders. All of them look gawky to my eyes  :P
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