With my deteriorating knee, one of
the things I've looked at is building a biplane Fly Baby, to
provide a structure over the cockpit that I can grab onto to
help hoist myself in and out.
Drew Fidoe suggested that I could use the trapeze bracing for a replica the Morane-Sauliner "N", or "Bullet":
The Morane was what Rolland Garros was flying when he installed
deflector plates to the back of his prop to be able to shoot a
machine gun straight ahead.
I did a quick conversion of one my my drawings, and I have to say, this is one of the more attractive-looking Fly Baby variants I've seen.
The weird thing is, this should be WAY doable. You'd need to add the cabane struts and landing wire brace, of course, but there's no reason you couldn't mount the wing as high up on Sta 3 &5 as you wish. A bonus would be a stronger wing; the flying wires would be at a more effective angle. Also, the cabane would act as a turnover structure.
You'd probably want to notch the trailing edge of the wing like a lot of folks do...for that matter, add some steps to the fuselage to help you crawl up on top of the wing.
The biggest issue would be connecting the ailerons. Could possibly go to a cable-driven system, with the cable coming out the original wing root (where the pushrod goes now), and a cable to interconnect the ailerons running right below the instrument panel.
The plane *does* look a lot like a '20s antique, in this configuration. Another possible enhancement is to leave the cowling off; the bare engine would push the appearance back into the 1910s or so.
Are they going to do a remake of "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines"? I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille....
Drew Fidoe suggested that I could use the trapeze bracing for a replica the Morane-Sauliner "N", or "Bullet":
I did a quick conversion of one my my drawings, and I have to say, this is one of the more attractive-looking Fly Baby variants I've seen.
The weird thing is, this should be WAY doable. You'd need to add the cabane struts and landing wire brace, of course, but there's no reason you couldn't mount the wing as high up on Sta 3 &5 as you wish. A bonus would be a stronger wing; the flying wires would be at a more effective angle. Also, the cabane would act as a turnover structure.
You'd probably want to notch the trailing edge of the wing like a lot of folks do...for that matter, add some steps to the fuselage to help you crawl up on top of the wing.
The biggest issue would be connecting the ailerons. Could possibly go to a cable-driven system, with the cable coming out the original wing root (where the pushrod goes now), and a cable to interconnect the ailerons running right below the instrument panel.
The plane *does* look a lot like a '20s antique, in this configuration. Another possible enhancement is to leave the cowling off; the bare engine would push the appearance back into the 1910s or so.
Are they going to do a remake of "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines"? I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille....
