De Havilland DH6 (oz15230)

 

De Havilland DH6 (oz15230) by GF Elsegood 1985 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

De Havilland DH6. Radio control scale model of the WWI biplane trainer. For .15 to .20 engines.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 14/4/2024: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "Build this 43 in wingspan version of the classic first World War trainer for .15-.20 motors. De Havilland DH6, by GF Elsegood.

I HAVE BEEN FLYING thermal soarers for several years but have not built a power model since single channel days. A conventional trainer did not really appeal or seem necessary; what I wanted, I decided, was something easy to fly that looked realistic and would be powered by an OS 20.

So the search began. Looking through Kenneth Munson's Fighters 1914-18, I found what proved to be the ideal model - the DH6. It was designed to be the basic RFC/RAF trainer; it was ultra simple, perhaps stark is a better description, and although the prototype had the typical graceful De Havilland fin and rudder, this soon disappeared in production.

I was eager to start and built the fuselage before I obtained more accurate information; this came in the form of Putnam's DH Aircraft since 1912, and explains why there are some discrepancies between the photographs and the corrected plan!

Construction: Fuselage: The construction is entirely conventional; build two sides over the plan using spruce for the longerons and balsa for the uprights. The front is filled in with medium sheet balsa, grain horizontal. Remove, separate, and fit ply formers 1 and 2, crack the longerons aft of the cockpit (no sweeping curves on this aircraft!) and join at the tail. Fit the cross-pieces, balsa formers and the hard 1/16 stringers. Epoxy the 1/4 in thick ply cross-pieces, grooved to accept the undercarriage.

Cover the top of the fuselage with 1/16 soft sheet balsa, damping if necessary. I found it easiest to cover the whole area completely and cut the cockpit out afterwards. Make a paper template and use it to cut out a piece of Miralite to cover the entire sheet area. A cut must be made in the ply from the centre of the rear of the cockpit as shown in the sketch because the top of the fuselage is not a constant height.

Before attaching the ply with Evostik, bend up the 16 swg centre-section struts and very carefully drill holes in the longerons to accept the ends of the struts. Make holes in the 1/16 sheet, fit and carefully check the alignment of the c/s strut wire. When satisfied, remove them and attach the Miralite ply; they can then be fitted permanently using epoxy. Build the centre-section of the wing and glue (PVA) and sew it to the 16swg centre-section struts.

Wings: The construction of the wings should not pose problems. The riblets are fitted on the top surface only and the ribs cut from fairly soft sheet, balsa. The 1/8 sq spars are spruce and the trailing edge is hard sheet to obtain as sharp an edge as possible.

To ensure equal incidence, fit one length of 14 swg tube in each of the two positions between the spars while the two halves of each wing are held together on a flat surface. Epoxy the tubes and fill in between them and the spars with scrap sheet. When completely dry, cut through the tubes carefully with an old razor saw blade to separate the wing halves..."

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De Havilland DH6 (oz15230) by GF Elsegood 1985 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz15230)
    De Havilland DH6
    by GF Elsegood
    from Radio Modeller
    October 1985 
    43in span
    Scale IC R/C Biplane Trainer Military
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 21/03/2024
    Filesize: 482KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: JJ
    Downloads: 406

ScaleType:
  • Airco_DH.6 | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz15230) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH.6
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

De Havilland DH6 (oz15230) by GF Elsegood 1985 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg

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Scaling

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