Bowden Mouse (oz891)

About this Plan

Bowden Mouse. Free flight power model model.

The Bowden Mouse design dates back to 1935. This here is is a later, re-drawn plan by Peter Scott, published in Aeromodeller, July 1978.

Update 3/11/2022: Added article, thanks to aeromeddeler.

Quote: "Peter N Scott reconstructs Col CE Bowden's Famous 1935 Biplane.

THE IDEA of building a replica of Col Bowden's 1935 Mouse biplane design originated in 1972 after locating a copy of FJ Camm's The Model Aircraft Book. The design was shown in reduced 3-view form; after receiving a polite reply from Newne's that '...considering that nearly 40 years and a World War had passed since the book had been published,' they could not supply full-size plans. Therefore the job of scaling-up the 3-views began.

That in itself was a time-consuming task; and for one reason or another, construction was not commenced until 1975, with the intention of entering the completed model in the 'Model Engineer' Exhibition. However, the problems involved in trying to. safely transport the model from Switzerland to England were prohibitive, and so not until the Spring of 1976 were flight tests commenced.

At 4-1/2 lb all-up weight, complete with Brown Jnr and an original Bowden-type metal prop (still legal in Switzerland), the Mouse flies slowly and sedately, and certainly re-echoes those early days at Faireys. Flights of reasonable duration are possible, thanks to the model's delightful ability to fly with the motor throttled back, in low-altitude circles around the operator - while the likelihood of thermal loss is small!

This 9cc petrol-driven model biplane was designed by Captain Bowden to be entirely dismantled and if a heavy landing is made the various component parts will get knocked off. We can refer back to the original article of 1935 to learn of its construction.

First of all a full-sized drawing should be made up, from the outline drawing, of the fuselage in side elevation, the wing and tailplane, taking great care to locate thrust line and angles of incidence of mainplanes correctly.

The fuselage formers are stuck and bound at their corners to the longerons. Nos 2, 3, 4 and 5 formers are all made of 1/16 three-ply wood in the form of rectangles, the centres being fretted out for lightness, leaving rims of about 1/2 in. The distances between formers vary from each other. The uprights strengthen them and lie alongside the formers. Cross-pieces of 1/8 x 1/8 birch are glued in to strengthen the tops and bottoms. The forward part of the fuselage is made very strong, as it has to take engine loads as well as undercarriage mountings.

The undercarriage requires two brass tubes to be bound and glued across the fuselage bottom at Nos 2 and 3. These tubes are of in internal diameter to receive the wire prongs of the detachable undercarriage legs. Two smaller brass tubes across the fuselage at formers No 8 and No 9 accommodate the wire prongs of the detachable tail-wheel mounting in the same way. The undercarriage can therefore, alsobe taken off and floats fitted if the owner later desires to experiment with the model as a seaplane.

Next a small cabin must be erected on top of the fuselage to act as the platform for the top mainplane. The angle to the thrust line must be carefully adhered to in order to ensure the correct angle of incidence. The cabin is constructed by glueing two uprights of in balsa across the top of the fuselage supporting a platform of 1/8 balsa..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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