not control line but I think its cool

[jim gilmore]

when I was in NY and visited Rhinebeck they said these airplaes had NO throttle. Yet I have never seen anybody model one that way. My understanding was that they controlled the spark to be either no spark and engie off or spark on and full power.

[Dan McEntee]

   I don't know of any replica full size models being powered by the original engine either. I don't think even Cole Palen at Rhinebeck ever had a Dr-1 with rotary power and he was a stickler for authenticity. They used a "blip button" on the stick to control the spark. Watch the old movie, " Dawn Patrol" with Errol Flynn and David Niven sometime and they have some good shots of engines being controlled that way. The engine was a rotary style where the crank shaft is mounted to the firewall, the prop is attached to the crank case and the whole engine turns. You get a LOT of fly wheel action! Not sure what they thought the advantage was back then but it made the airplanes that were powered that way some what  of a challenge to fly because of all the torque.
  Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Elwyn Aud]

The high alpha pass probably isn't standard operation for a Dr-1 but was a nice surprise. Did he have a model Sean Tucker in the cockpit?  There is a company in Australia or New Zealand that is building new copies of one of the WW 1 rotaries and there are several operating in replica fighters. There are probably a couple of originals operating in Great Britain. They seem to do do a pretty good job with with flying examples of pre-1920 aircraft types.

[Jim Kraft]

The guy is a super good flyer. I have watched this before as it is very intertaining. Mucho money in that job.

[Mike Scholtes]

When I see videos like this I always think "who ARE these guys?" It always seems to be in Switzerland where these huge models are being flown. How about the flying field, with Alpine houses dotting the hills and the postcard landscape all around? Just the engine in that Dr1 must have cost thousands of dollars. I would love to know the back story about how a "model" like this is conceived and built. By a club maybe? Imagine the hours in constructing something that size! And what kind of servos are being used to drive the control surfaces with that kind of air load? Very impressive project. Then take a look at the half-scale F-86 Sabre on the same page!!

BTW I spoke to the owner/pilot of an authentic WW1 Henriot biplane powered by a rotary engine. This was maybe 30 years ago at an airshow. He confirmed that the engine had no throttle, it was either full-on or full-off by killing the spark with a button on the control stick. This accounts for the sound they make when taxiing or setting up to land.

[Dan Berry]

In the 80's, Cole Palen's outfit had several planes with rotaries.

Sopwith Camel, the Dr1 which had a LeRhone, moraine Saulnier Parasol for certain.
They flew a early Hanriot with magneto switch for throttle along with a Curtiss Pusher. The Hanriot and Curtiss only flew a straight line about 15-20 up and put down on the runway after proving it could get airborn. He said they decided that flying them any farther was pretty dumb after a stuck switch planted them in a tree they couldn't get over. He was an entertaining man.
                         

[Mark Scarborough]

Back in the early 60s, my dad and his brothers looked at purchasing Rhinbeck airdrome, for one reason or another they declined it, which I am forever sad about,,
however, my Uncle who just passed away was building a replica SE5, full scale, not a 7/8 version, that airframe is supposedly now in Rhinbeck to be completed, to my knowledge it was completely built and was in the rigging process when it was sold/given to them.
someday I hope to make it to see this little island of history and enjoy it

[John Rist]

And they talk about drones being dangers.  You couldn't pay me to stand on the side of it's flying field.  The video was fun to watch, puts me at a safe distance  from this killer.

 

[okcub2015]

Reminds me to go and visit Cole Palens air port, its just up the road from me. Havent been there in years.

Bruce

[John Park]

I believe the whole raison d'etre of the rotary engine was cooling - metallurgy wasn't too advanced in those days, and to get a flyable power-to-weight ratio the engine had to be built light and caned pretty hard.  Gallons of castor oil for lubrication, of course - a total-loss system that can't have been much less messy than our two-strokes!  There's a very good and informative article in the 1977-8 AeroModeller annual about making a one-fifth scale Gnome-Rhone monosoupape rotary that ran but as far as I know was never put into a model. 

Regards
John

[11290]

When I see videos like this I always think "who ARE these guys?" It always seems to be in Switzerland where these huge models are being flown. How about the flying field, with Alpine houses dotting the hills and the postcard landscape all around? Just the engine in that Dr1 must have cost thousands of dollars.

I did a lookup on the engine #s in the video and about $7600 USD.

[Will Davis]

  I don't know of any replica full size models being powered by the original engine either. I don't think even Cole Palen at Rhinebeck ever had a Dr-1 with rotary power and he was a stickler for authenticity. They used a "blip button" on the stick to control the spark. Watch the old movie, " Dawn Patrol" with Errol Flynn and David Niven sometime and they have some good shots of engines being controlled that way. The engine was a rotary style where the crank shaft is mounted to the firewall, the prop is attached to the crank case and the whole engine turns. You get a LOT of fly wheel action! Not sure what they thought the advantage was back then but it made the airplanes that were powered that way some what  of a challenge to fly because of all the torque.
  Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

We have had several of the big triplanes at the last couple joe Nall events in woodruff sc , quite a show , not the same model, the one in joe Nall has flat 4 cylinder gas engine . Da  probably

We have some big models on the control line circles at joe Nall, ( Derek Barry and the sweeper , ) but non that big,

[Elwyn Aud]

These aren't much bigger than that R/C ship!

[Noel Corney]

Unfortunately not very scale, The originals were not that smooth or shiny--- Not that I was around in WW1 of course. Very confident flyer tho.