Prop Nut

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Here are a few pictures of the 1/3rd scale Sopwith Triplane that I am building. I am scratchbuilding it with ideas from several other builds , mostly small electrics and one other 1/3rd scale, that I have found online. The landing gear were made by a friend for me, the basic structure and Idea I found on RCSB on another 1/3rd scale Tripe built by a gentleman named Alan. An increadible build that I recommed everyone checking out. I am not a stickler for exact scale, I just wanted a BIG WWI plane to fly and something not found at every fly-in.

The fuse (around 61 inches long) is composed of an 1/8th inch ply box structure and spruce longerons with spruce cross bracing. The diaginal braceing is 3/8 balsa and balsa will be used throughout the rest of the build.

The wing (103 inch wingspan) ribs are all cut out just waiting for me to actually start building them. I am still going through ideas of how to do exactly that. I have pretty much settled on a dual box structure for the main spars. With a rib being only 1.5 inches thick and 13 inches in cord they is not alot of room for beefing them up. The flying wires will be functional.

I chose to make the plane just shy of 1/3rd scale so that I could use the Balsa USA Sopwith Pup cowl. This will save me alot of time making one...and as often as I nose over it will make replacing it easier also.

Power will be a Quadra 50cc with a 22x8 prop. This should pull the plane around very well if I come in under the 35lb limit that I hope for. If I think I will go over this, a Zenoah G62 will be substituted.

The landing gear are 1/4inch chromemolly tube welded. (Thanks Rob) that I pretty much copied straight from Alans build on RCSB. Hard to improve on his design.

Pull Pull will handle the controls in the fuse, I am using braided control-line cable with Sullivan ends. Again, I really liked the way Alan did his and will use something very simular.

Any comments? Suggestions? This is my first scratchbuild and all are welcome. Just no flames please.

bent

Outstanding!! I scratched a little 1/8 scale Tripe that flies perfectly so I can only imagine how nice your big one will be. Are you planning to leave it fully assembled and haul in a trailer? What's it gonna be...Black Maria?....Black Death?....Black Prince?

Prop Nut

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I was thinking of Black Walnut...my nickname is PropNut after all

Just kidding. I dont really have a color scheme in mind at this time. I have avoided doing exact scale schemes due to the many people that just love to point out the inaccuracies at fly-ins
Really though, I just dont have the patience to do as good of a job as the Scale scheme would deserve.

Where did you balance your 1/8th scale at? Any tips, tricks etc that you ran into with your build?

abufletcher

Prop Nut, that looks like a fantastic start!

Prop Nut

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Thanks Don. I made the pull pull mechinisms last night, they are working fine. I now need to make the tubes where the cables change direction to exit the fuse.

don olsen

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Looking good David I see you finally made into the big shop I like the gear

Steve Percifield

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Good looking tripe, hope you bring it to the Hoosier Dawn Patrol in August.

www.hoosierdawnpatrol.com

steve p

Prop Nut

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If course I will Steve. Did you get something worked out so we can play the WWI music?

WinterHawke

Prop Nut,

Gorgeous work on the Tripehound – you’re gonna have a nice one there!!!

Some random thoughts,

CG should be reasonably easy to calculate on this one, since all three wings are basically the same area, and the stagger is constant. I’d expect it to work out somewhere around one-third back, maybe 30 percent, on the mid-wing. But the best bet may be to send a note down to Dean Lukover, of Dayton Dawn Patrol fame, as he had a Sopwith Triplane at Dayton back in 2003, and should have notes on how that one balanced. My less than two cents worth, and easily worth part of what it cost!

Colours and Markings

I’ll assume that you’ve got the most excellent Osprey publication “Sopwith Triplane Aces of World War 1� by Frank Norman. I picked my copy up a few years ago when I was contemplating bashing a Tripehound together. It’s a very enjoyable read, and has several good colorschemes (accepting that all but the prototype are painted in PC 10).

In particular, I liked:

Plate 15 – N5393 “Blymp� – Australian ace R.A. Little’s 20 victory Triplane, mainly because of the history, it shows off the metal cowling and the wooden cockpit opening, and that cool name. This is the one I was looking to do (if I ever finished anything!)

However, knowing your penchant for Blue, two others stand out:

Plate 17 – N5465, flown by several pilots including the ace S.M. Kinkead. It sports nice blue wheels as well as the entire fin.

Plate 33 – N5359 “P�, flown by J.A. Page – this one is notable mainly because it’s got a Blue cowling as well as the wheels and fin!


The other nice thing about the Osprey book is that the color plates show the PC 10 more towards the brown color than green – and I think this looks a lot better anyway – it also more matches those nifty drawings Mark Miller does up on the Aerodrome!


Looking forward to more updates on this one!!

Best regards,

Lee McDuffee
the WinterHawke

chodan

Great looking bird there Propnut! I feel really inadequate now because I have been dragging along on a 1/4 scale tripe from Cleveland plans for over a year now and I still haven't made as much progress, and my bird doesn't look as good either. I agree that Frank Norman's book is excellent. There are also some very good sites with pictures of the triplane such as the Canadian National Aviation Museum that has up close photos of the replica of Collishaw's tripe that they built and flew, and the replica at the Calgary Aviation Museum, done from original plans. I took some pictures of the Calgary example so if you need anything that you can't find on their site, let me know and I will look at my digital pics to see if I have it.

Prop Nut

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Thanks Chodan, I have all the pictures of the Calgary Tripe, some good soul posted them all on the Sopwith Cookup site in Zip format. Tons and tons of info there. I also have all the pictures of a build by an RCSBer named Alan of his 1/3rd scale Tripe build. Pictures are not a problem right now, working my courage up to start the wings are!

David

jphobby

I have been watching your progress and hoping that at some point your might share your secret, where did you come by the plans for your beautiful tripe? I am in the process of building the 1/3 scale sopwith pup by balsaUSA. I ended up with two of these kits and since I have seen your bird standing tall I thought it would be a good idea to build the second kit as a triplane. If you can help, I would hope you might share your secret. Keep up the fine work and I will continue to follow your progress.
Thanks

R/C Art

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Hey Prop Nut......you got the hard part done! Fuselages are tough - wings are easy. And all six are identical on the Tripehound.......what?.....oh, the fact that there are 6 wings is the problem!? And all 4 of the struts are the same, too. Wow, you've got it made.....
Your project is looking great! Now if only I could get my 1/3 scale Nieuport 11 fuse sitting on some landing gear and ready to bolt on some wings......We can put them up in the air at the Hoosier Dawn Patrol and go looking for some Huns!
Keep up the good work on the tripe and I'll see you in Muncie this August.
Cheers,
Art

Prop Nut

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Hey Art, where is the other fuse that was in your workshop?! Didnt you get the wings for that one done?

The wings are easy to build for my Tripe, just figuring out how I want to go about making them as strong as possible without the need for a spegetti mess of flying wires is the issue. I think I have it solved though. I actually have the wings built, just not finished out yet. I have also finished the pull pull mechanicals. More pictures tommorow.

Thanks for the comments by the way, I really do look forward to the 1/3 scale dawn flight!

Prop Nut

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JPHobby, to answer your question...I found a CAD drawing of an electric (36") sopwith Triplane online. I used DesignCad 16 to redo the drawings to 1/3rd scale, some reworking to make it strong enough and a few 3views imported into the program to make scale changes to what I had accomplished. I would like to say everything is my design but the truth is that most of the ideas came from elsewhere and I only manipulated them to work for me. I give credit where I can.

eagledancer

your tripe is looking mighty fine! keep up the good work! i am currently building a 1/3 mick reeves camel, hopefully one day we can get together at a flyin

Prop Nut

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Eagledancer, I would love to see that. I hope to attend both the Hoosier Dawn Patrol at the AMA flying site in August and the Dayton Ohio USAF museums Dawn Patrol in September. Maybe I will see you there.

Prop Nut

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A couple of updates;

I have roughed out the two upper wings, they still need thier shear webing in front and back of both the forward and rear spars (making a box structure) but I need to do the sub ribs, and the cabane mounts, wing tips, ailerons, etc etc etc. I have not yet begun the lower wing as I am still working out the reenforcement issues to make the lower wing as strong as a monolithic structure. I have ideas.

Here are pictures of the pull pull arrangement for the tail. I am pretty happy with the outcome, pretty much the same as what Alan posted on his 1/3 scale Tripe build on RCSB (Again, I really urge people to check it out)

My wonderful wife consented to give scale to the airplane as it sits on my saw outfeed table. This is the wonderful person that makes all of this possible for me.

R/C Art

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Propnut, that's gonna be a lot of wings and ailerons, huh?
As for my other fuse from my shop.....well it's sitting out in front of the house with a big blue tarp over it. It was too big for my shop.....and now my wife says it is also too big to be sitting in front of the house. What's a fella supposed to do? She has been very patient, but with spring around the corner I guess I am going to have to find a home for it somewhere. Any suggestions?

R/C Art

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Propnut, here is a picture of my other fuse.....it is a Sopwith also (Camel). I think mine is a little bigger than yours!

Prop Nut

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Art, I have a huge barn I...er...you can store it in. I still want it[:@] but I think my wife is dead set against me spending money for it right now.

Lucky Dog

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Propnut,
Looking great! Keep the pictures coming!


Art,
A couple of ideas:
Maybe offer it as a raffle prize at Hoosier Dawn Patrol.
or
We can mount it on a pole at the new field and use it as a wind T.

Prop Nut

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Mounting it at the field is a cool idea! [&:]

R/C Art

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Hmmmmmm, maybe.

Prop Nut

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)Ok, I am closing in on getting the wings done. I hope to have some pictures posted later next week of the wings assembled (maybe even the flying wires).

Now I need to really start thinking of a color scheme. Those who know me (Art, Mike, Del, Don, Lee, resist the urge, just resist it, dont give in to the dark side ) would assume that I would go for a blue and white scheme and hang the scale gods. But, I actually am thinking of going with something more scale. Please, if you have some pictures, know of a website or other build please post them to help me out.