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Old 05-04-2014, 07:20 PM
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Fairchild aircraft of the 1920’s and early 1930’s.

Most of the April design activity has been around the Fairchild FC 2 from 1928. There will be more on that later. This is just an opportunity to briefly talk about Mr. Sherman Fairchild (1896 – 1971) and where he fits into the picture and for Fairchild aircraft, pictures were very much what it was all about!

Sherman’s father, George Winthrop Fairchild, was a newspaper businessman, investor and a six-term Republican U.S. Representative from New York. George was a pioneer in the time recording industry. In 1911 George Fairchild became president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording company, later becoming chairman. In 1924, the year of George’s death, C-T-R was renamed as IBM. Sherman would inherit his father’s IBM stock remaining IBM’s largest individual shareholder until his death.
An inventive, intelligent youth, Sherman spent some of his early years in the C-T-R workshops. He attended Harvard University inventing a synchronised camera shutter and flash. He also contracted tuberculosis that saw him briefly shift to Arizona for the climate. Rejected for health reasons from the military Fairchild became a pioneer in the field of aerial photography and mapping. The camera he developed featured a shutter that was inside the lens. This reduced the image distortion caused by slow camera speeds conflicting with the motion of the aircraft. His innovations would establish aerial photography with Fairchild cameras as the industry standard.
Unlike the majority of aviation manufacturers, Fairchild’s access to finance and contracts meant that he could typically pursue his interests by establishing a company with the purpose of making what was desired.
Thus, on finding a lack of suitable aircraft for his photographic purposes, Fairchild established the Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing Company to create such an aircraft. Following a prototype, the Fairchild FC 2 (soon after designated the Fairchild 71) became one the best-selling light aircraft in the late 1920’s. The early Fairchild’s aircraft performed superb service as reliable bush planes and as among the first passenger carriers of America’s fledging airlines.

Fairchild’s interests were varied. He enjoyed architecture and cooking. He was a jazz enthusiast and patron of Jazz musicians with his own recording studio built into his NY apartment. In 1931 he established Fairchild Recording Corporation that created studio recording equipment and amplifiers.

Perhaps Fairchild’s greatest impact, certainly as an investor, did not occur until 1957. In that year he was approached by a Robert Noyce, a representative of a group of eight engineers who were defecting from a company and the man who had teamed them up with the purpose of setting up a new company. In Silicon Valley lore this group would later be known as the ‘Traitorous eight’ and would be seminal in the establishment of California’s transistor and circuit manufacturing industry aka Silicon Valley. Fairchild was impressed by Robert Noyce’s futurist pitch and so the Fairchild Semiconductor division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument was started with the intention of making silicon as the substrate in transistors rather than from germanium. The following year, one of the ‘eight, Jean Hoerni created the planar process meaning that transistors could be made easier, cheaper, and with much higher performance. Immediately all other transistor processes were obsolete and then, in 1960 they managed to build a circuit with four transistors on a single wafer of silicon. Fairchild Semiconductor had created the world’s first silicon integrated circuit.

Which really brings us to today where the silicon chip is the basis of our way of life, including the minor art of the design of paper airplanes but maybe in the case of the Fairchild aircraft models currently being designed, a connection worth noting.

Our plan includes the creation of the Fairchild FC 2w and variants, the Fairchild 41 and the Fairchild 100 ‘Pilgrim’ in 1/48 scale. The Fairchild ‘Stars and Stripes’ had been started in 1/72 scale about six years back (see attachment) so what we are talking about is very much ‘back-to-the-drawing-board’ kind of approach where we can improve of our earlier, unreleased Fairchilds.
Attached Thumbnails
-fairchild-plaque.jpg   -fairchild-amplifier_620.jpg   -fairchild71air.jpg   -fairchildbits-s-s.jpg  
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  #2  
Old 05-04-2014, 07:57 PM
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Some interesting information there. Had never put all the different businesses together before. Will look forward to seeing the aircraft models develop.
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Old 05-04-2014, 09:08 PM
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This is a great project. You are doing a great service by preserving the history of this firm and its great airplanes.

Don
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Old 05-05-2014, 10:04 PM
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The Fairchild FC 1 looks a good subject for modeling, but we are giving this one a miss for now.The slant on the lettering FAIRCHILD a consequence of the 'razorback' design also carried through in some of the early FC 2s.

As well I've attached a picture of the Fairchild K3-A which was standard in much of the aerial mapping of the 'twenties and 'thirties. Many of the National Geographic aerial images of that time being taken with Fairchild cameras.

..and from The Aircraft Year Book 1930 (covering the preceding year, 1929).

"Fairchild Aviation Corporation, a division of the Aviation Corporation spent the last six months of the year in the development of a new engine to be known as the Fairchild 375. It was a six cylinder, in-line, air cooled machine rated at 110 hp..'

So engine manufacturing yet another business connected to the Fairchild name although the 375 engine appears to have been developed no further..
Attached Thumbnails
-fairchild-fc-1.jpg   -fairchild-k3-.jpg  
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Old 05-06-2014, 10:39 PM
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Designing the Fairchild FC-2

There is typically a LOT of work in designing in paper models and this picture illustrates the universal engineering story of trial and error. These are the rejected components of the model currently being designed - the Fairchild FC-2 first flown in 1926.

The aircraft would go on to become the best-selling US light aircraft of it's time.

An explanation for the multiple paper wings, the making of which represents a substantial activity of April, is the difficulty in rendering the compound curves and taper on the wingtip which cause the wing to widen as it gets narrows giving it an undesirable appearance, although not immediately visible. We think we've resolved it though and we will be applying that paper engineering to future designs.

Terry
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-p1010368.jpg  
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Old 05-07-2014, 07:52 AM
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I have boxes full of stuff like that.

But it does give a good underestanding of the trial and error that is involved.

That particular FC-2 sure had a pretty color scheme.

Don
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Old 05-07-2014, 01:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Boose View Post
I have boxes full of stuff like that.

But it does give a good underestanding of the trial and error that is involved.

That particular FC-2 sure had a pretty color scheme.

Don
Ta Mr Boose..looks like this will be another quiet thread on the bedrock of US commercial aviation!

We put the 'Stars and Stripes' livery to one side and opted for an Interstate livery. Interstate was absorbed into American Airlines after about a year of operations and 'The Aircraft Year book of 1929' included a couple of images which formed the basis of the model. While I'm comfortable with the Blue we opted for the Orange wings based on the later AA schemes. Little information on Interstate around unfortunately..

Should be able to post some build shots later today...

Terry
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Old 05-07-2014, 03:14 PM
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Please don't feel neglected. I'm following this thread with great anticipation.
Wayne
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Old 05-07-2014, 04:02 PM
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Please don't feel neglected. I'm following this thread with great anticipation.
Wayne
Thanks Wayne..this is a kind of sub-project of the larger project that will feature airport backdrops and facades for these aircraft. Generally we are working off photographs in the absence of drawings and usually the drawings are not that accurate. In this instance we have some Paul Matt drawings which are good and in this subject's case there are examples sitting in museums.

To be fair, I'm trying to make our threads useful in terms of the construction of the model in the future and impart a bit of history as well. Model Makers tend to be idiosyncratic in their tastes, however the neglect of the first commercial airplanes as subject matter has more to do with the ongoing appeal of military subjects and as we discovered, the lack of models of those same early commercial aircraft.

This is a shame as the diversity of forms in the design of aircraft of this period is greater than the more homogenous design (tubes and engines) that dominates contemporary commercial aviation. From a design POV there is some satisfaction in digging out a significant aircraft in colour from old black and white photographs..

Terry
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Old 05-07-2014, 08:14 PM
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Hello Terry - I too am following with great interest. Enjoying particularly the cross connections among the different historical threads you weave - the 1920s were an amazing time. Also just finished reading Bill Bryson's "One Summer" - an account of the US in 1927, which is chock a block with aviation exploits, and how the whole country went nuts over aircraft and air travel the moment Lindbergh landed in Paris. A good read for anyone interested in the era. Cheers,
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