1/48 Sea Beau

[AS.12]

Wikapedia said something about smoke devices but I'm not sure. Photos show these devices on some aircraft but not others.

Correct, smoke marker launcher.

Previously built into the fuselage, deleted on the S-2F to save space but returned on the '2G mounted on the nacelle.

[zenrat]

So that's what Max had on the side of the Last V8...


BTW Womby, in this scale I expect, nay demand, that your wing folds are operational...   

[Old Wombat]

To be honest, after 34 years, I'd forgotten but, yes, they are smoke-pot dispensers.

Smoke dispensers were mounted on the port ventral surface of the nacelles in groups of three each.

BTW Womby, in this scale I expect, nay demand, that your wing folds are operational...   

You can expect & demand all you want, mate. What you're gunna get is what I serve up.

Actually, I'd thought about making it workable but there are going to be far too many tiny hinges & other bits that would break far too easily.

[NARSES2]

According to information I have the Avenger & Hellcat both used hydraulic wing fold systems on the more complex "Sto-Wing" aft folding system due to the weight of their wings & they definitely fit the period (even the Wildcat had a hydraulic system for a while but it was heavy & Grumman found that the fold could be achieved by 2 men just as quickly, so they stopped fitting them).

I realise a lot of USN types had hydraulic wing folds, but I was working on the basis that the FAA was slightly behind the times in this area, especially when using an aircraft originally designed for the RAF ? I did look to see if the Sea Mosquito was manual or hydraulic, but my Putnam's doesn't say.

[Old Wombat]

Chris, I know where you're coming from - it's what was playing on my mind when I posited the question - but thinking on it I believe the Beaufighter wing may be too heavy for a manual fold, especially the up-&-over fold I'm using (I don't think my skills are quite up to the cuts involved in making a Sto-Wing fold system which would be the other alternative).

I know how heavy the outer wing of the Tracker was &, although shorter, the Beau wing is deeper in chord & would weigh about the same or more. The Tracker wings could be folded & unfolded manually but it was slow, hard & potentially dangerous work for far too many crew to be conducted as a regular thing.

So, as this build is in my RAM time-line & is going to be a DAP-built aircraft, I'm going to assume that the more-advanced-than-real-world Australian aviation industry has the technology to make the hydraulic fold work.

I've actually made the cuts & cobbled it together with tape & she looks pretty good. I'll take some photo's tomorrow (later today) to post when I get my SmugMug account back in order.

Thanks for bouncing ideas, though. Even if I don't use them, they are appreciated & often help to crystallise in my mind where I want to go.

[kitnut617]

This pic of the Sea Mosquito shows what maybe a hydraulic activated wing fold



But if you look at the top right photo in this pic I think it might have been manual.



I've read an interesting article about the first Sea Mosquito prototype, probably in one of the past issues of Air-Britain's AeroMilitaria. It was a recounting of someone's memory of what was done to get the wing folded. A Mk.VI had been selected for the conversion and an engineer had come out and drawn a line on the wing, then told the worker to "cut here" using a wood saw   

[AS.12]

Yes, the Sea Mossie's wing was manually folded by a gang of four using a long pole.

The wingtips were by secured by cords to lugs behind the canopy, and supports went up through the undercarriage bay via a hatch in the upper centre-section to slot into the folded wing.  All a bit of a faff.

[Old Wombat]

Yes, the Sea Mossie's wing was manually folded by a gang of four using a long pole.

The wingtips were by secured by cords to lugs behind the canopy, and supports went up through the undercarriage bay via a hatch in the upper centre-section to slot into the folded wing.  All a bit of a faff.

Looks like a gang of seven in the photo & with the support already deployed it's far too easy to punch a hole on the wing when folding it, too. With the hydraulic system the hydraulic rams can be designed to go only so far, then the rams hold the wing up until one or two ground crew can climb up & fit the support struts in place. Much fewer crew & much safer.

[kitnut617]

The DH Sea Hornet wings were hydraulic folded.

[kerick]

What about a Skyraider hinge? Just my $0.02.

[AS.12]

The Sea Hornet had the advantage that accommodation for the mechanism could be designed-in from the outset, though it still needed metal plates inserted inside the upper & lower wooden wing skins like the Sea Mosquito.  The Beau wouldn't need those so might have enough room & strength for a hydraulic system.

[NARSES2]

Must admit I did have some doubts regarding the weight of the wing and a manual fold.

In some respects I think if it was a wartime conversion they would have gone for getting the aircraft in production a.s.a.p. and that may have meant a manual fold, but if post war then there would have been the time to design in a hydraulic one. Also there might have been more manpower available to fold it during the war.

I've actually made the cuts & cobbled it together with tape & she looks pretty good. I'll take some photo's tomorrow (later today) to post when I get my SmugMug account back in order.

Looking forward to this

[Doug K]

I've read an interesting article about the first Sea Mosquito prototype, probably in one of the past issues of Air-Britain's AeroMilitaria. It was a recounting of someone's memory of what was done to get the wing folded. A Mk.VI had been selected for the conversion and an engineer had come out and drawn a line on the wing, then told the worker to "cut here" using a wood saw   

Pretty much my method when I folded my Osprey floatplane

[Rheged]

I was wondering if you might have considered a Z-fold like a Gannet wing?

[AS.12]

Digging through the Flight archives I discovered that design of the Sea Hornet's hydraulic folding was subcontracted to Heston Aircraft.  Might be a nugget you could use in a back-story for the Sea Beau.

Ironically probably the cleanest neatest design of the era was the Sea Fury, from Hawker who hadn't previously folded a monoplane wing.  I wonder if that was subcontracted too.