Hey Guys,
I made it up to the Dawn Patrol @ WPAFB over the weekend. I grew up in dayton, and used to spend a bunch of time at the museum. I've always been a fan of old planes, but had never really had the chance to see much WWI era stuff (or replicas) that actually flies. That was definetly cool to see.
Anyway, I had a question about the replicas. It seems like a large percentage of the kits/plans are smaller than full size. What's the reason for this? I could understand if you were trying to save weight to get under the ultralight weight, or if the planes were high powered to begin with, and you wanted to use a smaller power plant. I can't seem to come up with a good reason why you would build a Nieuport 11 in 7/8 instead of full scale.
Also, I live in Gatlinburg, TN (near knoxville). Is there anyone in this general area who is building or flying? I was reading about building the stuff on
www.nieuports.com, and it really doesn't look that bad. I'd love to check out someone elses project. My uncle is building a piper cub replica up in ohio, and Graham Lee's planes look like they are a lot closer to my skill level, since they seem to require more rivets, and less welding.
Pete