Douglas World Cruiser

[Sakrison]

A good book on the subject:

Around the World in 175 Days: the first round-the-world flight by Carroll V. Clines, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.

[RyanShort1]

Originally Posted by Sakrison

A good book on the subject:

Around the World in 175 Days: the first round-the-world flight by Carroll V. Clines, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.

Should be Glines, with a "G" for those that might look it up. He was also the official historian of the Doolittle Raiders and a legend in his own right.

[fitter]

The story continues:
At the request of the Smithsonian Institution, the US Department of War donated "Chicago" to the museum. He made his last flight from Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. on September 25, 1925. Almost immediately, it was exhibited at the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building. In 1974, Chicago was restored under the direction of Walter Roderick and moved to the new National Air and Space Museum building and displayed in the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight exhibition gallery.

After 1925, the "New Orleans" was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Beginning in 1957, "New Orleans" was on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. In 1988, it was moved to the Santa Monica Air Museum. The aircraft was on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and was returned in 2005. Since February 2012, the "New Orleans" has been part of the exhibits at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California.


Since the fuselage was wrapped, it was time to make the lower panels. I started with the middle part and then it went away.

[yankeekilo]

outstanding model

[RyanShort1]

Is it too early to ask where you plan on releasing this?

[fitter]

RyanShort1 - due to the fact that the topic is niche and large in terms of volume, I don't know if it will be released anywhere yet. Times are hard and I understand publishers who would rather release another version of a famous aircraft than freeze funds on a model that will sell for 10 years.

Continuation of the story about the plane:
The wreck of the Seattle was recovered and is now on display at the Alaska Aviation Museum. The original Boston sank in the North Atlantic.
The only surviving fragment of the original prototype ("Boston II") is believed to be the aircraft's nameplate, now in a private collection, and a piece of fuselage plating, housed in the collection of the Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum in Poplar Grove, Illinois.
After several years of work, Bob Dempster of Seattle, Washington, built an airworthy replica of the Douglas World Cruiser, "Seattle II", powered by a restored Liberty engine, which made its maiden flight on June 29, 2016.


After the lower lobes, it was time for the upper ones, and only after gluing the whole thing together, I realized that the colors were wrong. Well, Douglass, like most American military aircraft of that time, should have the upper surfaces in Orange Yellow. So I started making corrections, changes and additions and gluing another copy, and this one remained as material for further work on the "basic version".

[scissorsandplanes]

Wonderful looking model, Fitter.

[fitter]

Thank you all for the kind words about the model

Today in history we will pay tribute to the crews of the planes (parts are developed so that the assembler can choose which one he wants to have on the shelf):
- "Seattle" (1): May. Frederick Martin (pilot and flight commander) and SSgt. Alva Harvey (flight engineer)
- "Chicago" (2): Lt. Lowell H. Smith (pilot) and 1st Lt. Leslie Arnold
- "Boston" (3): 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (pilot) and SSgt. Henry H. Ogden
- "New Orleans" (4): Lt. Erik Nelson (pilot) and Lt. Jack Harding

As my "Chicago" had a messed up color scheme (and the lower wing by the hull by the way) I continued working on the floats while gluing another copy - to spice up "New Orleans". Of course, it also has a slight error (lack of straps on the elevator), but I will not correct it on the model (probably with a marker I did not mention that in the meantime a second version of the radiator was created - wider and with shutters.

[rifleman]

thats a gem of a build and design well done

[yankeekilo]

Originally Posted by fitter

RyanShort1 - due to the fact that the topic is niche and large in terms of volume, I don't know if it will be released anywhere yet. Times are hard and I understand publishers who would rather release another version of a famous aircraft than freeze funds on a model that will sell for 10 years.

I agree, some rare prototypes don't sell well, that's the case of my dc-4e, it will be removed from my list in the following days since it doesn't sell well at all