RWD-8 in 1/16 scale as flown by the Jewish resistance in Palestine 1937-48

[Leif Ohlsson]

Theo,

That is indeed a coincidence!!! The model you are recoloring is the printed version of the electronic download version at Ecardmodels. (I find it easier to work from the vector files in the electronic downloads, since there is absolutely no loss of quality.)

My very best wishes for your build!

Leif

[Leif Ohlsson]

As noted by Robert "3Turner" above (thank you!), the kit has now been included in Ecardmodel's offer, at a very reasonable $8.95 for 26 pages as outlined above.

As a complement to the kit I would like to offer two pages not included in the kit you get when buying it, detailing the internal framework and many details of the original full-size aircraft. They should be most valuable for anyone who wishes to go the extra mile in detailing his or her model.



These delicious sketches of the internal structure are built on an original RWD-8 instructions booklet from 1935, readily available from the Polish Aviation Museum. The versions redrawn here stem from the Aeromodeler Oct. 1967 issue (with the added advantage of English legends), available together with a very good set of drawings from as a stand-alon download from the Hip Pocket Aeronautics, Builders' Plan Gallery.

Note how the drawings in this tech.doc. depict the "open tub cockpit"-type of RWD-8, not the one modeled here. This required adding some detals, like a full panel in the rear cockpit.

Incidentally, after a very good & fruitful conversation with Theo ("Yaelb") I have learned that the set of instruments in the back seat most likely should be a bit more sparse than in the front seat. As soon as Theo writes up his own repaint and build – and I'm very much looking forward to that, since it is basically the same model as the one redrawn and enlarged here – he has very graciously offered me to include a better rear panel for the rear cockpit seat. This will be offered as a free download add-on, in the downloads section of this site, same as the tech. docs here.



The second page of detailed sketches of the full-size original is even more interesting and revealing. Among other things you can study the flap required in the right wing root, which had to be folded up in order for the wings to be able to fold back. This in turn required additional detailing of the existing kit. Other differences between the early production version depicted, and the version modeled, have been noted on this page, and reflected in the kit.

Get these two pages from the download section of the site. They are made up in the same layout as the 1/16 scale kit described here, and contain references to it.

[ccoyle]

Superb research and model, Leif!

[Gil]

Hi Leif,

You've single-handedly created a new card modeling genre. Great way to segue story to model. Congratulations!

Best regards,
-Gil

[Isaac]

What a great project!

I built a tiny 1/72 scale plastic model of the same aircraft and registration. At 1/16, you can really add allot of detail.


Isaac

[Don Boose]

Yet another absolutely superb work of research, design, and art capturing a part of aviation history.

Your presentations are so rich in information and imagery that it takes time to absorb them.

I am very glad that you are doing this and making the results available to us, Leif.

Don

[yaelb]

After reading Leif's thorough history study on the three RWD-8 that were operated by the Haganah, I would like to add some more information on several issues that Leif mentioned, information that I have gathered while doing a similar study on the Aviron Aviation Company, and to shed more light on the matter.

About 30 years ago Mr. Noam Hartoch, one of the leading experts on the aviation history in Israel, published a series of articles on the planes that were operated in the early days of flight in Israel in a the magazine "BI'AF" (in flight). A free translation of the relevant part from his article regarding the RWD-8s reads like this:

"The first encounter of the Jewish community with the plane, took place in
the spring of 1936, when a Polish pilot named Dz'embisnski arrived
with his private RWD-8. After the pilot landed in Tel Aviv he met with members of the Israel Aviation Club and of the Haganah including
Eliyahu Golomb and Dov Hoz who were impressed by the aircraft's abilities and it's the long flight from Warsaw to Tel Aviv.

That interest in the Polish plane resulted in signing a contract on 25/06/1936, that included the purchase of one RWD-8 and a Vronka and a Chaika gliders. The purchase was done for the aviation club and through "The Orient Aviation Company". The finance was done by Bank Ha'Poalim.
In order to prevent suspicion from the British Mandate authorities, the name of the Haganah was not mentioned in the contract.

he RWD-8 that carried the Polish registration SP-BCE was acquired on the 5th of August, 1936, after being exhibited in "The Oriental Fair" that took place in Tel Aviv. Following this procurement, the relationships between the Jewish community in Palestine and the aviation authorities in Poland tightened up. At one point the Poles offered to establish a flying school at their own expense and to send flight instructors in exchange of acquiring another RWD-8.
Indeed, sometime after the acquisition of the first plane, two more aircrafts of the same model arrived carrying the Polish registration SP-BLK and
SP-BLL.

On the 10th of June 1939 the Polish registration SP-BLK was altered to
VQ-PAK, and the SP-BCE to VQ-PAG. The third plane remained under it's Polish registration since the British civil aviation authorities refused to grant it a certificate of airworthiness due to it's poor condition.

On the 10th of January 1940 all three planes were transferred to Aviron Aviation Co. for operating within the aviation school at Kibbutz Afikim,
conducted under the operating license of "Hashahaf " (the seagull) Flying Club, in the Jordan Valley. Earlier, during the years 1937-1939 the Aviron Co. held it's aviation courses in a DH-60 Gipsy Moth and a DH-82 Tiger Moth planes. During the years 1943 - 1945 the RWD-8s were used mainly for reconnaissance and liaison purposes and less for training purposes.

In 1946 it was decided to dismantle the SP-BLL since it was no longer airworthy, and to use it's parts to rehabilitate the VQ-PAG that was in a bad technical condition. Towards the end of 1947 the first test flight was conducted on the restored plane. Shortly afterwards the VQ-PAK was also dismantled for spare parts.

The RWD-8 planes were permanently retired from service by Aviron Co. in early 1948."

In the estate of Mr. Emmanuel Zukerberg (Zur), who was Aviron's head pilot and instructor and later on became it's general manager, one can see a logbook in which Mr. Zuckerberg wrote the following lines:

"The school started on 5.4.39.
Crash of Tiger Moth on 3.5.39
School reopened with RWD-8 on 8.5.39."


From those few lines we can understand that at least from 1939 this plane was used for flying lessons.



Theo

[Leif Ohlsson]

Theo (& others)

This is really, really great and firsthand information. I am so happy that this thread has contributed to some new and authoritative information about the RWD-8 & other Aviron aircraft. At this point, and thanks to Theo's information, I do believe we are at the very forefront of historical research on this subject.

Thank you, Theo!

- and warm regards,

Leif

[birder]

This is a great thread and artwork for this model,a treat to view and read, I was not familiar with this plane it's wings remind me a bit of others in it's generation...

[Leif Ohlsson]

It seems the link a few posts above to the two pages of technical documentation doesn't work with the new layout of the downloads section. So here we go again, just to avoid aggravation...

• RWD-8 technical documentation (2 pages, pdf)

- L.