| Hi Barry
the real Avro Baby fuselage (apart from the prototype) was made from steel tube covered with plywood panels in the front and fabric aft of that. Cowls were aluminium.
These 'replicas' are made from mild steel tube and sheeted with flat panels which are low-tech fibreglass laid up on a flat table and cut to size. They are attached to the steel frame by fibreglass tapes on the inside, and joined by frp tapes on the outside, which are smoothed and refinished to give an authentic appearance.
With the wings, first a single wing section with a wingtip on each end is made from plywood ribs with steel spars and covered with fabric, tapes applied over the ribs and the ribs are sewn. This is painted with dope, then 2-pack paint and a mould taken from it. The wings are then made from that mould (port wing is made by blanking off the stb wingtip, etc) from fibreglass with steel tube spars. Thus the wings have authentic appearance, with fabric pattern, tapes visible and undulations between ribs, but are very robust and maintenance-free.
Flying wires are made from flat steel strip with left and right threaded rod at each end, and all the turnbuckle ends are made from mild steel round bar using lathe and milling machine.
Engines are made from fibreglass using moulds for repeated shapes. Wheels are automotive or motorcycle wheels with the tread ground off.
The overall result is quite convincing. Here's a pic of the DH61 at Longreach.
The next job after the Avro Baby is a DH50. You can see the engine for the DH50 (Armstrong Siddeley Puma..we have 2) in the second of the Avro Baby pics I posted earlier. For that replica we have original engine, propeller, wheels, & radiator with shutters, so it will be partly restoration and partly replica.
Other fullsized aircraft in this construction contemplated for Longreach QANTAS museum are the Be2e, Armstrong Whitworth FK8, DH 86, and possibly Short S23 Empire, although the latter seems a bit ambitious.
A good thing about these replicas is that they are very robust, so people can interact with them (within reason)without fear of damage.
GeoffR |