Miles Monitor (oz14662)

About this Plan

Miles Monitor. Radio control scale twin. Wingspan 56 in, for twin .15 engines.

Quote: "Miles M33 Monitor .Tony Nijhuis, the man behind Westfield Aircraft, describes his latest twin-engined project.

So why model the Monitor? Before stumbling across this aircraft, I had been searching through various plan books to see if anything would be suitable for a pair of OS 15's. I also wanted a scale aircraft with a high wing configuration for stability and one which would be reasonably straightforward to build. Having no success from the plan books I started looking through my reference books and there it was in Jane's Aircraft of WWII. Unfortunately, there was only a single photograph and a tiny 3 view drawing. I tried to source additional information and a larger 3 view drawing of the Monitor but was unsuccessful.

Having decided that the Monitor was for me, the tiny 3 view drawing in Jane's was going to have to do. As the design of the model was done on AutoCad, this allowed me to scale up the drawing very quickly and then manipulate and tweak the overall shape until I was completely happy that I had done the best job possible.

Construction: Rather than a blow by blow account, I thought a more general appraisal would suffice. I know when I read a plan feature, I usually skip this bit and go straight to the flying report!

Fuselage: The fuselage construction is simplicity itself. Race and cut two fuselage side panels and line the top and bottom edges with 12mm triangle. The fuselage formers F2,3,5,6,7 & 8 are constructed over the plan. First fit F5 & 6, then the wing and tail seat doublers and finally the rest of the formers. The belly of the fuselage is sheeted cross grain and then top sheeted longitudinally. The rolled decking at the front is then applied and finally the nose is constructed using 12mm sheet and triangle.

Tailplane & Fin: The tailplane is a conventional rib & spar arrangement, skinned top and bottom with 1.5mm sheet balsa. The Fin is constructed from 9mm soft balsa and profiled to the shape indicated on the plan. If you plan to fit the tail wheel and combined rudder horn, it is best to do this now before attempting to glue the tail an to the fuselage.

Wing: The wing is a one piece affair of conventional rib and main spar build up. Only the top wing surface is fully sheeted, purely as a saving towards weight and materials. The bottom edge of the wing ribs are cap stripped except where the fuselage and nacelle join the wing- these areas are sheeted.

The nacelle frame is constructed using two plywood 'inner' nacelle sides on to which the engine bulkhead is secured. The nacelle half formers are secured on to both the wing and the nacelle sides. The final shape is provided by applying strips of 2.5mm balsa [barrel construction method). I opted not to employ U/C doors due to problems I had previously encountered with my Beaufighter.

The radial cowls were constructed by making a frame from liteply and 3mm sq spruce and then rolling 0.8mm birch ply around it. The front of the cowl was finished off by laminating sheets of 9mm and 12mm balsa into a ring and sanded to shape as indicated on the plan. The cowl will enclose a .15 size engine with a 'dustbin' type of silencer. If you do decide to use a standard silencer, be prepared to chop the nacelle and cowl around a little to make it fit. Alternatively if you can get hold of a proprietary silencer neck extension, the butchery is somewhat reduced..."

Miles Monitor, R/C Scale International, November/December 1997.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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