Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Flying Scale Models 02/2012

After a bit, you begin to think that you know the classics, but every now and then, a model comes along that confounds and perplexes. Bert van Eijk's beautiful Bowers Fly Baby Biplane is just such a model. After all, the Bowers Fly Baby is an in-line-engined slab-sider monoplane; yes? Well, the answer is, in Holland, they may not be. Roland Haarlem is a Dutch full-size pilot who wanted to build a unique example of the mega-famous Fly Baby home-built marque. However, he decided to add a US Le Blond radial engine, and to fair out the original flat fuselage lines with curved stringers. As you can see, the result is adorable. It updates the lines of Pete Bowers' 1960 original in a completely new direction. Noted Dutch scale modeller Bert van Eijk saw the full-size design, and reached for his building board. In fact, Bert's model is based on Roland's original drawings, so it is very accurate indeed.

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