Vickers Vernon, or "I should have gone to specsavers". Part 1

It would appear that in my haste to do a good thing, in my attempt to produce a kit for a Vickers Venom for AJ, I failed to reach reach for my spectacles.  Had I had done so, I would have noticed that AJ was actually after a Vickers VERNON.  A peculiarity of the on-screen font and my diminishing vision leading to this most innocent of mistakes.  A happy mistake however, as the 1:56th world now has another aircraft option!

So what about the Vernon?  I did a brief internet search, and had some details filled in by AJ, who writes "The Vernon is an interesting beast. It was basically a streamlined Vimy bomber, and aside from bombing, the Vernon was used for mass troop transport (the first time an aircraft was used for the role), being instrumental in quelling the Iraqi insurgency of 1919-22. In 1923 it was deployed on the first Cairo-Baghdad airmail service. Nos. 45 and 70 Squadrons RAF operated them in Iraq. As a historical side note, it was where 'Bomber' Harris learned the techniques of aerial bombing."

These images were kindly supplied by AJ.

Given the historical importance of the prototype, this seemed like a fantastic opportunity to design a really unique model, and learn some interesting history along the way.

Usually the internet is a great source of drawings etc, from which I can cheekily trace my own designs, however in this instance all I turned up were some rather poor quality 3 view plans.  However, having learned the Vernon has a wingspan of 20.75m it was a quick job to resize these into 1:56, which leads to a model wingspan of 370mm.

Image from aviastar.org

I like to begin a project like this by focusing upon what I consider to be the simplest element, which in this case I think is the elliptical fuselage.

Once I had determined the cross-section, it was a simple matter to produce a kit of the basic parts required.  I'm using 2mm thick MDF here.

Friends of Pegasus Bridge and the Schloss Itter project may recognise the shady character in this photograph, and I extend my thanks to Mr Awdry for always having to hand just what I need, when I need it.  I think his generous offer to supply a Sherman too, may have been a hint that I should have been working on something else however.....

The angle of the photograph does rather diminish the scale of the fuselage, but even so, Mr Awdry and I were curious as to quite how the passengers might have the space to enjoy their G&T's having 'turned-left' upon boarding.

So it was with some delight that I discovered the following photograph on the internet.

Although unlikely to be a military variant of the Vernon, the placing of the Lloyd Loom style armchairs do hint at the rather cramped conditions.  Also of note are the rather fine framed biplane pictures hung on the walls.  It seems that even in the 20's in-flight entertainment was still a priority.  The sliding windows too are a nice touch, one imagines that paper bags may have been a scarce commodity in those days.

At first glance, the rectangular opening at the front bulkhead looks like a homely wood-burning stove, however I believe it to be an access hatch to the crew compartment.  

Just visible through the 'sad eyes' windows are the crews' controls, from where they would have most delightful if draughty views from the open cockpit!

This photo was an excellent find, as from it I could determine the floor level of the cockpit, and envision a ladder arrangement from the front hold to the pilots seat.

This enabled me to consider how the front end of the aircraft might be modelled.  

And so from this I had enough information to model the front-end of the aircraft in 3d as if it were a kit of parts.

This framework will all be 2mm MDF, with balsa pieces glued and sanded to form the bulbous nose shape.

And there is it, my progress thus far in designing a model of this most fascinating prototype.  My thanks to AJ for providing me with the information above, I hope he wont mind me including it here to help set the scene.

Tomorrow, I shall return to working on a certain Austrian castle, to keep the boss-man sweet but will post an update soon as I continue the design work.

If any visitors have any pictures or information about the prototype which they'd be happy to share, I'd be delighted to hear from you.  In addition, please share this page if you can think of another who might be interested in my progress with this design.

Until next time, thanks for visiting.

James