DC-3

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DC-3, 1992
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I love the DC-3!
The DC-3 is a very beautiful aircraft and very smooth and calm to fly!

    Thinking of flying model planes in daylight is a little bit boring,
    because erveryone is able to do it, I had a plan in 1988, building a
    3m wingspan DC-3 to make it fit for night flights!

     I found a structural drawing of an approx 1,40 m wingspan DC-3
     in a magazine and the building could begin.
     That building turned out to a prototype, on wich I worked exactly
     one year. Building began on 27.12.88 and take off was on
     27.12.89. The "prototype" had square motor units, no windows,
     no different paintings, no lights, no three-blades and no retractable
     landing gear, but landing flaps - the second had no flaps - it had
     shown, that they were unimportant for easy starting and landing.
     The first one crashed on it's third flight. .

Before the first plane was
finished, I began the second
one with drawing my own
construction plans in model size
1:1 mainly for the build and
installation of a self-developed,
retractable landing gear.
The work up to the completion
of the model took nearly
three years. The first flight was
in late summer 1992.

The landing gear first was out of wood, later I changed it to an
open aluminum-construction.

     I named the airline of the plane "Trans Northern Airlines" - a
     fantansy name of course - and wrote it up the window line.
     The whole finish of the model is a fantasy-finish.

.      An interesting thing is, that I built this DC-3 mainly out of paper!
     Only a few spants, the borders, the servo cartriges and the
     motor/gear-suspension was built with wood. The whole outer skin
     and the main spants are cardboard. For the skin white cardboard,
     wich was over-rolled with silver paint before further processing.
     After I finished the airplane, I over-brushed with a gasoline
     protective varnish. .

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...On picture up, you can have a feeling for the design of the late 30's and 40's - don't
...you? Arthur Raymond (1889-1999) was the designer of the DC-3 and the DC-3 did
   it's first passenger flight in 1936 by American Airlines. .
.      Cardboard is an ideal material, building larger RC-airplanes!
     It is much more cheaply, than balsa and on each card you have up
     to 100cm x 70cm material, wich is well and easy to cut with a knife,
     easy to glue. It has a relatively small wight and as the skin of the
     plane it looks very scale at last! .

. .....This maneuver demonstrates, how exactly and smooth a DC-3 can be flown...
.....but kids, better don't do it with your own DC-3s! ;-) .
Video: dc3-limbostunt.wmv 1,63 MB 6 sec
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Landing approach.

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Technical data
. Material: Cardboard + woods
Wingspan: 3 m
Weight: 17 kg
Engines: 2x Zenoah 22,5 ccm
Tank: 1 ltr
Props: Graupner Three-Blade
     36-18 / 14-7
Additional function:
      - Landing gear
      - Light on / off
      - Switch for single
         motor-control left / right
RC: Multiplex + Graupner
Servos: 14
Receiver: 2
Lighting: max. 33,6 Watts
Batterypower for control:
      -1x 6V / 4 Ah
      -1x 6V / 1,7 Ah
Batterypower for light:
      -1x 6V / 4Ah / 24 W

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Night flight
10.1992
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....Too little light for photographs - the evening of the night flight. .      For a flight in darkness you need orientation in every flight attitude.
     So I choosed a light-arrangement, you'll see on the pictures.
     On the flight day it was not totally dark - safety first - but you can't
     imagine how difficult it is, to fly such a modelplane in arising
     darkness!
     When you look into the rest of light up on the sky and after that,
     coming down to landing approach and you have to look over a
     grey, foggy landscape, onto a black horizon and onto a deep black
     runway-end - it is a realy dark thing!
     Better there are runway lights then, in order to measure the time /
     difference leaving for touch-down. .

See the complete, short flight:
Video: dc3-nightflight.wmv 1:37 min 3,36 MB
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    Today, in 2004, the "Trans-Northern-Airlines" DC-3 is no more in a
    flight condition. To much repairs all around, so I am thinking of a nice
    place in the garden, to hand it over to nature, like many Swedish
    people do it with their old cars...