Gwfm d vii

[Maxim08]

Wow!
I hadn't realised how long it had been since there was a post here.
A quick up-date:
The GWFM is up to it's collective eye balls with the 2009 season. 6 aircraft went south of the border and participated in the 3 day show at Geneseo. At least 1 forum member (Jeff B) showed up as well as others such as Brian Coughlin etc.

We have started building spars for the lower wing on the museum's D VII as well as my own. The wood was ordered in the middle of March and through a series of challenging buyer/vendor scenarios, the last pieces arrived 10 days ago. Thanks to Jim Irwin, president of Aircraft Spruce, for sorting things out.

While Achim and Jeff have paved the way in many regards re technique, these spars are providing their own challenges.

In one post Koloman noted that one of his Albitri took about 5,000 hours to build but there was an additional 6,000 hours in research, drafting and planning. I agree!

The GWFM aircraft was built to plans created by Rousseau Aviation for the construction of D VIIs for the film 'The Blue Max'. Their primary research was from the French aircraft capture reports and the surviving D VII at le Bourget.

There are many differences between these drawings and an actual D VII most notably in the wing construction.

The pertinent point here relates to the rib profiles and how the ordinates are tabulated on the drawings. My drafting background indicates that when you have a baseline (X) and points plotted on the Y axis, each point references the baseline. On the Rousseau drawings the numbers are cumulative so that if the baseline to bottom of rib at a given station is 12.5mm, the next increment to the top of the rib is shown as 120mm which is actually 12.5 + 120 = 132.5mm. This means that the height of the rib at that station is 120mm from the bottom of the rib to the top. Assuming a more conventional tabulation you would end up with 120 - 12.5 = 107.5mm in height for the rib from bottom to top. That is a difference of 25mm or approximately 1".

This is how the GWFM's D VII wings were built. Compared to an original aircraft, both wings are thinner in cross-section. While this should be a big problem, the GWFM D VII has flown for 30 years accumulating over 900 hours so, it appears to work OK!

My challenge in building the spars is that we now have a dilemna to resolve. Build a lower wing the way it was designed in 1918 or build a duplicate of what has flown sucessfully for so long?

Stay tuned and I well let you know what the decision is.

Enjoy your summer.

Regards,
John

[Jeff Brooks]

The first set of ribs I made for the museum were mis-plotted the way you described. The ribs ended up about an inch too small. That is why I am in the process of remaking the ribs to fit the Cash dimentioned spar.
If it turns out that the museum does not need these other ribs, I will offer to sell them to either Pavel, Troy or any other current DVII builder. If they want, we can strike a deal to make the spar for them too.
We will have to wait and see what the museum decides.

[C_blair]

If u have any questions about the original construction of WW1 feel free to ask me. im the grandson of the builder of ww1 altho my grandfather passed away in 2000 my grandmother was very involved in the build so was my dad and the other children . we have lots of pics of her being built thru diffrent stages of construction . we remember the name and licence # of the young man who did the majority of the welding on the fuselage

little history of how she came to be
early 70's my grandfather accuired the contract to repair all aircraft at brampton and was approached by ed coleman (sp)? if he could build the historical society a dvII replica . my grandmother believes the budget was $15,000.my grandfather said it could be done and construction was under way in 71 i think and by the time 74 came around the project was way over budget and thats how his kids ( my dad and uncle and aunts ) came into the picture working on this plane . in 75 my grandparents moved to barbados and left chris? his licence was ymz 1266 in charge to finish the job. my grandmother currently lives in edmonton but if u have more questions she is only a phone call away . she is digging up all the names and pictures and what ever else she still has and were donating copies to the war museum

sadly my dad passed away july 6 2009 and never got a chance to fly her so i was talking to a gentleman at the museum and said once she was rebuilt they could give him the flight he always wanted but never got a chance to do and my dads passing is the reason why im getting involved now i always new it was at the museum i just never knew how much she meant to everyone else i just thought it was covered in dust in the corner long forgotten about . So if theres any questions please contact me Colin@thesmokedfactory.com or 416 997 1627

[C_blair]

If u have any questions about the original construction of WW1 feel free to ask me. im the grandson of the builder of ww1 altho my grandfather passed away in 2000 my grandmother was very involved in the build so was my dad and the other children . we have lots of pics of her being built thru diffrent stages of construction . we remember the name and licence # of the young man who did the majority of the welding on the fuselage

little history of how she came to be
early 70's my grandfather accuired the contract to repair all aircraft at brampton and was approached by ed coleman (sp)? if he could build the historical society a dvII replica . my grandmother believes the budget was $15,000.my grandfather said it could be done and construction was under way in 71 i think and by the time 74 came around the project was way over budget and thats how his kids ( my dad and uncle and aunts ) came into the picture working on this plane . in 75 my grandparents moved to barbados and left chris? his licence was ymz 1266 in charge to finish the job. my grandmother currently lives in edmonton but if u have more questions she is only a phone call away . she is digging up all the names and pictures and what ever else she still has and were donating copies to the war museum

sadly my dad passed away july 6 2009 and never got a chance to fly her so i was talking to a gentleman at the museum and said once she was rebuilt they could give him the flight he always wanted but never got a chance to do and my dads passing is the reason why im getting involved now i always new it was at the museum i just never knew how much she meant to everyone else i just thought it was covered in dust in the corner long forgotten about . So if theres any questions please contact me Colin@thesmokedfactory.com or 416 997 1627

[Maxim08]

Colin,
Thanks for the post and information. I will certainly bring it to the attention of the members the next time we get together.
Regards,
John