In 1911, Geoffrey de Haviland was employed by the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough as Chief Designer and Test Pilot.

One of his jobs in this roll was that of repairing damaged aircraft. In the process of repairing a damaged Voisin and using ideas previously developed during the repair of a damaged Bleriot, de Haviland produced a machine that he Christened the BE1, or Bleriot Experimental 1.

Powered by a 60 Hp Wolseley engine, this tractor biplane had unequal span wings, a long tapering fuelage and large tail surfaces.
Later, the engine was changed to a 60 Hp Renault Aircooled V8.

The machine was taken on charge officially by the Royal Flying Corps... and permission was given to develop a new variant.

This variant was the BE2. On the surface, the only difference was the replacement of the 60 Hp Renault by a 70 Hp version. The maiden flight of the BE2 took place on February 1st 1912

In it's time, the BE2 underwent a number of configuration changes, involving changing the wings to equal span, reducing the size of the horizontal stabiliser and variations in exhaust and fule tank configuration.

Why the BE2?

Well, I have loved the BE2 series as long as I can remember... Before I die, I hope to scratch build the three main variations BE2, BE2c and BE2e in 1/24. Makes sense to me to start with the BE2 as the structure is very simple and the wings are of equally simple construction. It seems to me to lend itself to scratch building perfectly.

To begin...

Plans.
I have accumulated plans for this project over many years, but the main overall view is one originally published in the December 1912 issue of "Aeronautics". Some of these are available here http://www.arizonamodels.com/reference/index.htm
Engine drawings have been purchased from WW1 Aero's master archive. Many thanks to the kind people at WW1 Earo for their assistance.

Other sources are the Squadron Signal "BE2 in Action" and the Vintage Aviator Website. I also have a cutaway drawing originally published by Flight Magazine and republished by Aeroplane Monthly in a suplement of Cutaways which accompanied the Jan 2004 Issue.

Materials.
Primarily, Evergreen Strip.
Other materials will be noted as they crop up.

Initially, an attempt was made to build up the fuselage as a frame which would later be covered.
This was not satisfactory. The Fuelage sides were being built up on top of the plans, and as soon as the pins positioning every thing were removed, the frame sprung out of alignment.

So it was decided that the Framing would be built up seperately as sides and bottom, on top ot the skinning itself already trimmed to the required shape. This was far more successful.

You can see where I have used the simple tool of a ball point pen to emboss the wear and witness marks that would be left by the loose fabric flapping against the bracing wires. The wires themselves will be added after painting.


And after a coat of Primer.



More soon.

Cheers,

Hugh

i'll keep an eye on your buit...good luck with the job

Always admire your work Hugh , so this will be a treat watching this come together ..........

Outstanding Hugh! Most ambitious, but if anyone could carry this off - it is you. Model On!!!

This will be great, Hugh, I'm really looking forward to your build.

Mark

Quite a task is waiting for you, GOOD LUCK!

This promises to be a very interesting build.

For those wondering where this build is heading;

The fuselage sides and base are going to be fully fited out prior to assembly. The only things that will be left until after assembly will be the seats, the instument panel and various other odds and sods that are integral wiht the upper decking.

One of the reasons that I am going with the machine that I am, is the configuration of that particular machine.
It had;
-equal span wings.
-smaller horisontal tail surface
-gravity fuel tank slung under the cabane
-decking between the pilot and observer
and,
-no decking behind the engine.

de Haviland himself flew htis machine in artillary range spotting in 1913 over Salisbury plain.

Cheers,

Hugh

More "Eyes" will be on this build......

Regards
Steve

A small update.

Cockpit details are slowly being fabricated.

Here, the control column.



More soon,

Cheers,

Hugh

This will be interesting,I have some ideas about this, but have still some to learn, so I will be watching this closely.

Larsa

great

There is no particular order that I am fabricating internal details in.
Here is the beginning of the main fuel tank (Fuel was pumped from this into a gravity tank that was suspended under the cabane using a hand operated air pump (Air pumped into the tank and the added pressure driving the fuel up into the gravity tank) so lots of scope for plumbing)...


I got a bit distracted by playing with the tail feathers.
I used the Harry Woodman method of carving a core out of 40 thou sheet and laminating each side with a sheet of 20 thou which had previously been embossed with the rib witness on the inside face.
In photos of this aircraft and later types, it seems that not so much care was taken with horizontal and vertical stabilsers as was with actual flying surfaces and lots of sagging seems to be evident.
Here is the Horizontal Stab and the rudder prior to cleaning up.


And photos of both edge on, so that you can see the sagging effect.



And a shot of the Stabiliser and the rudder after clean up. The Elevators had only been freshly built and were not yet ready for sanding.


Details on Harry Woodmans methods can be found here.

April 30, 2009. Note this site quoted for WWImodeler.com website has been hacked and rerouted to an adult online dating site.


Cheers,

Hugh

Total cool Hugh ! Coming along rather well . Nice method on doing the flying surface's and the rudder .

this came up as a double post .
I do have a question though , what did you use for the embossing ? I have used a ball point pen before but found that it makes the lines to heavy .

That's exactly what I used Terri, Three reasonably heavy passes.

Cheers,

Hugh

The Fuel Tank... Ready for some paint.

The rivetted trim is made from the foild from the top of a tin of instant coffee.


Cheers,

Hugh

I like it ! How do yo made the rivets?

Excellent work, Hugh. 1/24 scale will allow you to show detail that you just can't get in smaller scales. This is going to be one nice bird. I check in on your thread all of the time. Keep those postings coming.

Mark

Hi Claudio,
I simply pressed lightly with a compass point as I ran along the edge of my steel rule in 1/16th of an inch graduations.

Mark,
I chose this bird to start wiht because there is so little detail to be seen in the cockpit!
I reckon that I will be going to town on the engine though.

Thanks guys for your comments.

Cheers,

Hugh

great work on the fuel tank...hope i can do some scratch tomorrow 2 (your work makes me want to put my hand on plastic) , been stopped because my kidney stones are killing me i just want to . them.

Neet trick withh the foil , tank looks really cool .

I have started painting the cockpit interior.

First a coat of Linnen (Darker than the Bleached Linnen that I used on the Fokker). The the stringers, framing and cockpit floor were given a touch up with Burnt Sienna Oils to replicate timber.
A wash of burnt umber and darkened burnt sienna will add interest... and then I will give it a coat of clear when it is dry and start adding and detail painting the metal fittings etc. And add the bracing wires.




A question. On the BE2c, the underside of the fuselage was timber planked from stem to stern. Not so on the BE2/BE2a?
From the plan and 3 views that I can find, it appears not.

Cheers,

Hugh

Very interesting Hugh, and very, very nice work so far.

Very nice wood effect Hugh , looking forward on seeing some of this build .