1/5th scale Supermarine S6b

[John Stainforth]

I have just got back to this having had to leave it for nearly a year. I did the 3D design in Rhino about two years ago built the framework (with laser cut parts, cut by Belair) in late 2015. Recently, I sheeted the floats and the cowling, which was an interesting exercise in sheeting with strong double curvature. Here is the sheeted cowling, which weighs 1.6 oz:

The next picture shows the complete airframe as it is this evening (5th Jan 2017), with the 3D-printed cylinder head fairings held roughly in place with an elastic band>

Incidentally, I am also starting to populate and album on this site with these and other photos.

[Martian]

That looks a cracker and one to follow

[Tony Bennett]

love it.

[DCW]

Excellent.. Nice to see a model of such an iconic aircraft.

David

[Alan Gorham_]

John, fantastic model, will enjoy seeing any progress with it.

Are you any relation to Wing Commander G H Stainforth who certainly had a close association with the S6b?

[John Stainforth]

Many thanks all for the encouraging comments. I may well be seeking advice during the finishing of the model. This is the first model I have built from scratch since 1965, my first effort at 3D drafting and my first efforts at 3D printing, so I have been on quite a steep (but enjoyable) learning curve.

Yes, George Stainforth is my great uncle: he was the first man to travel faster than 400 mph - in the S6b.

[Alan Gorham_]

John

I'm a very keen model floatplane flyer and a great fan of all things Schneider. I did already know that your great uncle was the first man to exceed 400mph while flying the S6b - what a fantastic family connection to the superb model you are building.

Thanks so much for starting this thread!

[Colin Leighfield]

The S6B was a wonderful aeroplane and it's performance all of those last years ago still seems hard to believe. Born in the mind of a genius who could turn dreams that seemed impossible into reality. That's a fantastic model, congratulations, I couldn't be more interested.

[John Stainforth]

Again, thanks all for the great response. Although I have this family connection with this aeroplane, even without that I would regard it as one of the most important in the history of aviation. It represented the pinnacle of Schneider Trophy achievement that bridged the gap between the biplane era of the Great War and the monoplane era of the Second World War. Although the Spitfire was not a direct derivative of the S6b, the genius Mitchell and the brilliant team he built around him put all the expertise they gained in the Schneider years into the Spitfire. Which (just) allowed us to prevail in the Battle of Britain. Without the Spitfire and it's Schneider forerunners, how would the Second World War have gone? BTW, I don't think I am overstating this case.

[onetenor]

Posted by John Stainforth on 05/01/2017 17:32:03:

I have just got back to this having had to leave it for nearly a year. I did the 3D design in Rhino about two years ago built the framework (with laser cut parts, cut by Belair) in late 2015. Recently, I sheeted the floats and the cowling, which was an interesting exercise in sheeting with strong double curvature. Here is the sheeted cowling, which weighs 1.6 oz:

The next picture shows the complete airframe as it is this evening (5th Jan 2017), with the 3D-printed cylinder head fairings held roughly in place with an elastic band>

Incidentally, I am also starting to populate and album on this site with these and other photos.

Superb model of a superb aircraft Well done young sir Will follow with great interest. Really lovely job John

[Colin Leighfield]

You certainly aren't John. Mitchell's early death was a great tragedy. He was head and shoulders above the other British designers and would have achieved even greater things if only he had been given the chance. We can only dream.

[John Stainforth]

Again, thanks all for the great response. Although I have this family connection with this aeroplane, even without that I would regard it as one of the most important in the history of aviation. It represented the pinnacle of Schneider Trophy achievement that bridged the gap between the biplane era of the Great War and the monoplane era of the Second World War. Although the Spitfire was not a direct derivative of the S6b, the genius Mitchell and the brilliant team he built around him put all the expertise they gained in the Schneider years into the Spitfire. Which (just) allowed us to prevail in the Battle of Britain. Without the Spitfire and it's Schneider forerunners, how would the Second World War have gone? BTW, I don't think I am overstating this case.

[reg shaw]

Great to see some pictures on here John, it's a fabulous piece of work. I see you've left it a year or so, a bit like me, I've had lots of things going on this last year too! I still am very interested in the bigger version and look forward to your progress. Are you bringing the beast to the next indoor do at Hulland Ward?

Cheers, Ian.

[Graeme Poke]

What a fantastic model John. You have built a superb Aeroplane.

Being a Spitfire tragic, I visited the Solent Sky Museum at Southhampton in July. I really enjoyed seeing the real aircraft. It's a fascinating story. They had a couple of models as well.

I have often thought of building an RC model so I will be following your build with great interest. Incidentally, I went to some trouble to visit as we live in Tasmania. All the best Graeme

[John Stainforth]

Ian,

I have sent you a msg saying that I would love to collaborate with a double sized version of this model. I think it is a great idea, because it would require very little modification of the 3D computer model.

But first let's see how well this flies before embarking on a larger one! I am hoping it will be ready for flight in the early summer.

John

[John Stainforth]

Today, I worked on the aileron hinges etc. This took more work than I expected to get the Robart pinned hinges into their correct positions. The Robart pinned hinges broaden out from circular to square cross sections close to the hinge-line, and a surprising amount of filing of the holes in the aileron LE's and wing TE's was required to fit these broad shoulders into the holes. In any future scale model I will be strongly tempted to use removable wires along the hinge-lines and glass-epoxy board hinges, as recommended by Dave Platt in his videos. (BTW, every time I have done things differently to Dave Platt, I have regretted it!) Have other modellers experienced similar hassles with pinned hinges?

[Martin McIntosh]

Really good to see one of these again. Back in the70`s the JDM display team had six of them, glass fuselages and nylon covered wings, so fairly weighty for a 60 motor. They flew a treat and even did point rolls better than many aerobatic models. Mine died trying to fly too low over water for the TV cameras.

Landings needed to be very gentle to avoid bouncing.

[Martyn K]

Superb build - watching how this develops

[Delta Foxtrot]

Posted by John Stainforth on 05/01/2017 21:42:56:

Again, thanks all for the great response. Although I have this family connection with this aeroplane, even without that I would regard it as one of the most important in the history of aviation. It represented the pinnacle of Schneider Trophy achievement that bridged the gap between the biplane era of the Great War and the monoplane era of the Second World War. Although the Spitfire was not a direct derivative of the S6b, the genius Mitchell and the brilliant team he built around him put all the expertise they gained in the Schneider years into the Spitfire. Which (just) allowed us to prevail in the Battle of Britain. Without the Spitfire and it's Schneider forerunners, how would the Second World War have gone? BTW, I don't think I am overstating this case.

Looks marvellous John, I will certainly follow your build with great interest. I have just started Ralph Pegram's book on the ST so it is quite topical for me.

Of course this is a wonderful, historic aircraft which was instrumental to the developments that you mention however, we must not forget that what was going on under the bonnet was equally important and instrumental in our salvation in WW2.

keep up the good work.

[Colin Leighfield]

DF is bang on about the engine of course. I understand that the "R" engine was the true predecessor of the Griffon, also 37 litres. Stunning engineering and aerodynamics, hard to believe even now a seaplane doing 400 mph not far off 90 years ago.

[Gary Manuel]

It's a thing of beauty John. Made even more special by your family connection.

[John Stainforth]

Thanks for the positive feedback. This is a fun project - i am learning *a lot* about the building at every stage.

[chris moody]

Hi John, I love the S6 that you are building. It looks like your Rhino work was done from the Supermarine drawings, is that right? I'd love to build an accurate model of the plane, are you going to sell sets of your laser cut parts etc?

Keep posting new pics.

[Jon Laughton]

Absolutely superb John well done. Looking forward to hearing about further progress and flying it! This is the sort of project build that should be featured in RCM&E- someone please take note!

Jon

[John Stainforth]

Chris, Jon,

Thanks for the comments. I did indeed use the Supermarine drawings for the Rhino model. I went to the RAF Hendon archives and got A3 copies of the microfiches of the key drawings, which are the acme of drafting BTW. The drawings include tables of "offsets" in "inches and sixteenths" (relative to the datum planes - stations, waterlines and buttlines) of the fuselage and floats, which I converted to xyz coordinates and imported these into Rhino as point clouds. These were used to make cross-sections of the fuselage and floats, which in turn were used to produce the lofted outer surface of the plane. An inner surface was then made to account for the thickness of the model skin, and then the whole internal structure was designed working in from that. If in doubt I mimicked the structure of the full-size plane; otherwise, my influences were from ARTF models, e.g. in the design of the fuselage box and wing tubes.

Once the model has (hopefully) flown successfully, I will be very happy to help others make copies of the model. I may well build a second one myself, incorporating some improvements from the first. If it is really successful, I might consider making molds for a fibreglass version.

Unfortunately I have again been taken away from working on the model by consulting trips to Arabia, US and Netherlands, but I hope to get back to it in a few weeks, and have it flying sometime this summer.