Drzewiecki Canard
Click on an image to see it in high resolution
About the model
A model by Andrea Hartstein, built from the pistachio plan by Antonin Alfery in Peanuts & Pistachios No 4, but scaled up to (sligthly undersized) peanut.
The model was made in 1995; you can gauge its age by the stains on the fuselage! It's a good flier, and has won the peanut class at the Swedish Nats several times.
The construction is entirely traditional; balsa structure covered by undoped, unshrunken tissue (SAMS Early Bird tissue). The rigging wires were originally from hot-stretched plastic sprue. It looks good and is easy
to work with, but it is rather fragile. A few wires would usually snap at every flying session. After a while I rerigged the plane with 0.07 mm copper thread, which is
how it is shown in the photos. The pilot is carved from pink foam, which is lighter, but has a more grainy texture, than blue foam.
Some data:
Span: 28.5 cm
Weight (without rubber): 4.6 grams
Best flight: 94 seconds
About the origial
A construction by Stefan Drzewiecki, built by the French
Ratmanof company. It was displayed at the 1912 Salon d'Aeronautique and
tested in 1913. It was however not very successful, the pilot did not like
the unusual control system, and there were problems with the power
transmission due to the long propeller axle. A later model was entered in the 1914 Concourse de Sécurité, but crashed, killing the pilot.
Scale documentation can be found in: Polskie konstrukcje lotnicze 1893-1939 (3-view, photos, history)
