Many years ago I
visited a shop to by a walkman which cost about 700 Rupees. In the same shelf
there was a plane that had a price tag of 1500 Rupees. I asked the salesman
what it was and he showed it to me. It was a small model Aero-plane with a wing
span of just 10 inches. It was not a toy for it was an exact model and had to
be carefully assembled together. I wondered who on earth would buy such a
thing, and then I realized it was a collectors item. Perhaps a man who worked
for an Airline as an Engineer would use it to show his friends about a plane he
used to repair, or perhaps the retired Air Force General would keep it on his
table, or a collector who had a fascination with planes.
I decided to make a
plane like it with wood and sell it for 1000 Rupees. The trouble is I knew
nothing at all about woodworking, and I didn’t know anyone whom I could ask.
But in the library I found a book about woodworking, it was a wonderfully
written book with clear pictures. The tools you need are simple. There is the hand saw which is used to cut planks
but this is usually not needed when making small items because the wood can be
cut to size in the wood mill. But its cousin a small saw that resembles a hacksaw but is much smaller and cheaper
than it, is still needed. The chisel which
is used to sculpt wood by hitting the handle with a hammer or applying pressure
is a basic tool for woodworking. (But I didn’t use it much for I used the saw
to cut the wood to size and the Rasp to shape it). A rasp which is actually a sought of file, but with bigger grooving.
When used in a similar way to a file it scrapes off wood very efficiently.
Although it was not mentioned in the book I found the normal file, which is usually used only on
metal is very useful for smoothing the surface. And the vice which is tightened to the table is used to hold the wood
firmly when cutting it with the saw, or working on it with another tool. The
vice is usually quite a heavy tool, but a small vice which cost only about 250
rupees is perfectly adequate for this purpose. A hand drill is useful, and of
course the hammer which was already there.
I wondered where I
could buy these tools, and found a stretch of road about a kilometer long, and
on both sides of the road there are shops that sell only wood working tools. I
bought all the tools I need for less than 1500 Rupees. I found it incredible
that a man could start business in one of the main areas of commerce by reading
a book, or by getting a few tips from a carpenter, and buy all he needed for
just 1500 rupees. If as I hoped I could sell my plane for 1500 rupees, I would
have most probably covered all the cost in the first transaction, but the tools
would still be there so from the second plane onwards I would make a big
profit.
The next step was to
find a plane to make. I have an old encyclopedia which has pictures of aircraft
and under “Historic Aircraft of World War I” I found a red Tri-plane (three
wings) that particularly appealed to me. It was the Fokker Dr.
I first built a plane
to get familiar with the tools, considering I worked on it without a plan it
still looked quite good. To build an exact model I needed details like the wing
span, the length and width of the fuselage, size and shape of the tail fin and
other details. I wondered from where I could find such specialized details.
Incredibly in a book I found in the Library on Aircraft there are diagrams of
planes giving these details. I drew these diagrams by hand and set out building
the plane. I wanted to build a plane with a wing span of 10 inches.
I used mahogany for
it is easy to work on. I bought a plank from the wood mill but it was too
thick. There is a machine in any wood mill called a Plainer-thicknesser that is used to plain wood to the required
thickness. I plained it to a fraction of an inch and drew the three wings on
it, held it in the vice and used the small saw to cut it. Then I used the rasp
for the slight tapering effect on the top of the wings, and the file to smooth
it. In a similar way I cut the tail sections, the propeller and all the other
sections except the fuselage from the same plank of wood. The tail sections
were a little thinner so I used the rasp and file to make it thin. I bought a
square pole and used the thicknesser to make it to the size of the front end of
the fuselage. The fuselage tapers up and becomes smaller as it nears the tail
section, all I had to do is to cut this part with the small saw and use the
rasp and file to shape it.
The small teeth of
the small saw cuts the wood rapidly and does not hold the wood and get stuck
like the hand saw. The design simplicity of this plane is amazing, a big plank
could be used to cut any amount of wings and other parts except the fuselage,
and the fuselage itself is just a square pole, so any amount can be cut from a
long pole.
Many people think to
cut a wheel you need a wood lathe, but it is not so. I drew the wheel on the
plank and cut slightly around the line of the wheel, and a few stokes of the
file towards the line made a really good wheel. The axel was also made in a
similar way, and I used the hand drill to make a hole and connect the wheel to
the axel. The wheel and the propeller were movable parts.
I pasted all the
parts with glue and painted it red, and when I painted the Iron Cross on the
wings, fuselage and tail it looked incredibly good. I felt really happy at
having made a model plane that actually had the same energy of the real Fokker
Dr.1 flown by the “Red Baron.” The next day I wanted to take it to shops and
show it as a sample of what I could build if they were willing to sell. But
that evening a friend visited me with his son, and when I showed it to them,
his son pleaded with me to give him the plane. I reluctantly gave it thinking
that I would be able to make another for now I knew how it was done. Soon after
they left I felt a great sense of loss, and sadly never built a model tri plane
again. For something more important came up and soon responsibilities
overwhelmed me. And I lent some of my tools which were never returned. I feel
the wooden Tri Plane is just at the edge of my hands, but I never really manage
to make one. But one day when I am a little less busy I will make one for my
son, and I am sure I can make many more and sell at a profit.
Written by: RJX
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