Orlik Fokker Triplane 1/33rd

[Siwi]

Originally Posted by Isaac

Dan


Technical note ( or a fun technical trivia )

As an FYI to our viewers, this plane was powered by a rotary and not a radial engine. The crank shaft was bolted to the firewall and the propeller was bolted to the engine and both rotated. Main reason to rotate the engine was to get sufficient airflow to cool the engine. Radial engines were stationary and the engine body was mounted to the fuselage. The prop was mounted to the crank shaft. Cooling was done by airflow from the propeller or an additional fan.


The good thing was that they were very light in weight. The bad thing with a rotary engine is that you needed to turn the mags on and off to throttle the engine, and secondly was the inertia of the rotating engine. The plane would roll faster in the direction of the torque and slower opposite. Rotary engines were replace quickly after WW1 by the radial engine and of course the inline water cooled engines.



Isaac

The other 'bad thing' about rotaries is that the oil (castor) was a total-loss system as it had to be fed along with the fuel through the crankshaft and couldn't be recirculated. This meant that anything downwind of the engine, ie the pilot, often recieved a liberal coating during flight and it doubtless increased wear on the moving parts.


One other quirk worth mentioning is the use of mags you mention as the means of throttle control. The characteristic irregular sound of only a few cylinders firing for low power somehow became a mistaken trope for 'engine trouble' in films well into the period when conventional piston engines were normal.

[romanmodels]

Great work Dan

[smithdr]

Thank you very much: Gary, Ray and Roman. It was a really nice kit...very well-designed and the fit was really, really nice. I had fun painting it up too so that's a bonus.


As of now, I'm leaning toward a double build of the Avro and Greg's Karas!


It'll be a duel build of two x two-seaters!


Cheers,
Dan

[modelperry]

You know I'm just messing with you. Build what your muse tells you to build.

Greg

[Erik Zwaan]

Outstanding result Dan, you really displayed your best with this one!

Cheers,
Erik

[smithdr]

Thanks, Erik and thanks for your suggestions and ideas during this build. I can't wait to start another model. Too much fun!


Dan

[Michael Mash]

Wonderful triplane.
I have not seen that color scheme before.
Mike

[smithdr]

Thank you very much, Mike. It is supposed to represent a factory finish except for the red leading edges, tail stripes and "D" on the side. It's closest to a Jasta 6 machine, but the "D" is made up. So it's not a particular machine!


Much appreciated,
Dan

[YOAVHOZMI]

the model looks great

YOAV