Many years ago I visited a bookshop and found in it a small model Aero-plane with a wingspan of seven inches. I was amazed by it. It seemed that 1500 Rupees was a very high price for such a small model plane. So I decided to make a plane like it with wood and sell it for 1000 Rupees.
The trouble was I knew nothing at all about woodworking. 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. Then there is the fret saw to cut curves. The chisel which is used to sculpt wood. A rasp to scrape off wood very efficiently. And the vice to hold the wood, the hand drill, 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, in Armour Street (before Panchikawatte) where and on both sides of the road there are shops that sell only wood working tools. Its incredible that I could engage in this useful pastime by reading a book and buying a few tools so cheaply. But the trouble with woodworking when making small items is that it is very labor intensive. Each small piece takes hours to get right, no wonder it was replaced years ago with metal and then plastic. But plastic doesn't have a “soul”, which wood has in abundance.
The next step was to find a plane to make. I have an old encyclopedia that 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. 1 Tri-plane flown by Baron Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918), the World War I German flying Ace, who as leader of an air group called the “Flying Circus” personally shot down 80 Allied planes. Richthofen served in the cavalry and infantry before entering air service in 1915, and was known as the “Red Baron” for the color of the plane he flew, but was shot down in aerial combat possibly by Captain A. R. Brown of the British Air Force.
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 Planer-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 fret saw to cut it. Then I used the rasp for the slight tapering effect on the top of the wings. 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 to make it thin.
In my own unhumble opinion, the design simplicity of this plane (for mass production) was 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 shaped with the rasp. It seemed to me at that foolish moment that I had overcome the labor intensity problem of wood with a really simple design that still looked great.
I pasted all the parts together and painted it red, and when I painted the black Iron Cross on the wings, fuselage and tail it looked incredible. I felt overjoyed at having made a model plane that actually had the same energy of the real Fokker Dr.1 Tri-Plane 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 I never did. For some reason I felt afraid and embarrassed, as if in selling this plane I would be conducting some disgraceful act. Eventually I gave the plane to someone for free. I also lent most of my tools to people who never returned them. I never built a wooden model plane ever again. For something more important came up and soon responsibilities overwhelmed me. And I realised that this was the story of my life. It seemed that another one of my dreams had flown away with the Red Tri-Plane.
Written by: RJX
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