Sopwith Camel (oz52)

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Sopwith Camel (oz52) by Paul Lindberg 1935 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Sopwith Camel. WWI fighter by Paul Lindberg, from Popular Aviation magazine.

Quote: "Building the Sopwith Camel, by Paul W Lindberg.

OUR readers were so pleased with the last wartime model and so, by popular request, we have drawn plans for an exact scale model of the Sopwith Camel F-1. The construction of this model is very simple. The weight of the model has been made as light as possible in order to obtain good flying qualities. The model is very stable and will fly a long distance. All details, such as shock-absorbing, landing-gear, movable surfaces with aluminum hinges, correct markings, etc have been carefully carried out. All dimensions can be quickly and accurately determined, by placing a ruler on part to be measured. If you wish a larger model, multiply this measurement by the amount of increase.

Color Scheme: Fuselage -blue tissue; front section painted white; see plan. Cowl - red. Wings and tail surfaces - yellow. All struts - natural wood color. Please note: to eliminate weight, the model is covered with colored tissues and not painted with colored dopes.

Construction of Fuselage: First, place waxed paper on top of plan to prevent parts from sticking to paper. The fuselage sides are built from 1/16-inch square balsa. The longerons, verticals, diagonal braces, etc are held in place until securely cemented by inserting straight pins on either side of strips wherever needed.

When the two sides are completed, the cross-members are cemented into their proper locations. Check carefully front-to-rear for alignment. Cut the formers from 1/32-inch sheet balsa and cement in their respective positions as shown on the plan. The position of the stringers are clearly shown on the formers. See photo.

Work stringers from front to rear and check carefully to see that they have the correct spacing. Section of fuselage from formers 1-11 and 10, to formers 8 and 8, is covered with stiff paper. Formers 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 are covered with separate pieces of stiff paper.

Construction of Wings: Cut all ribs from I/32-inch balsa. Pin center spar in position on the plan. Now, cement ribs in their proper locations. The leading and trailing edges are cut and sanded to shape and cemented to the ribs. The upper and lower panels carry movable ailerons which are a great help in controlling the flights. Make wing tips from 1/16-inch thick balsa... "

Supplementary file notes

Planfile includes article.

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Sopwith Camel (oz52) by Paul Lindberg 1935 - model pic

Datafile:

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

    ScaleType: This (oz52) 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/Sopwith_Camel
    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.

Sopwith Camel (oz52) by Paul Lindberg 1935 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg
Sopwith Camel (oz52) by Paul Lindberg 1935 - pic 004.jpg
004.jpg
Sopwith Camel (oz52) by Paul Lindberg 1935 - pic 005.jpg
005.jpg

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User comments

Hello Steve and Mary - On the face of it, the plan might seem rather out-of-scale: the stringers used to fair the fuselage to the engine cowl are more numerous and extend further down the fuselage sides than on a Sopwith Camel, and the curved line of the rear fuselage in the side view is atypical of the real thing. However, I wonder if Mr. Lindberg's reference material in 1935 included photographs of a related aircraft: the Sopwith Snipe, and one modified shortly after the First World War to test an early type of parachute, named the 'Calthrop Guardian Angel'. This aircraft had a slightly more bulbous fuselage, necessary to accommodate the parachute equipment, to which Mr. Lindberg's design bears some comparison. Here is a photo for reference [see more pics 005].
GuyColeman - 29/10/2017
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* Credit field

The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.

Scaling

This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.

 

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