Digital Card Model’s Sopwith Wright

A Review By Mark A. Johnson

Photographs by Mark Johnson

At the end of the 1905, confident that they had fully uncovered the secrets of flight and concerned that further public testing would jeopardize their secrets, they stopped flying for nearly three years. Some believe this delay hurt the Wright’s ultimate ability to capitalize on their invention. During the three years from 1905 to 1908 other inventors also managed to fly although their best efforts more closely resembled the Wrights’ 1903 flights. Significant among these aviation pioneers was Santos Domont, a Brazilian, who first flew his 14-Bis publicly in France in October of 1906. Although his flight was only a few hundred feet in a straight line, (while the Wrights were flying circles for over half an hour a year earlier), he performed in full public view of large crowds. The Wrights’ relative secrecy caused most of the world to doubt that they had flown at all.

Then on Aug 8, 1908, Wilbur Wright publicly demonstrated the Model A during a tour of France. The stunned crowds where expecting to see at best more of the short hops they’d been accustomed to seeing. Imagine their surprise to see Wilbur in complete control of his highly maneuverable airplane, flying as long as his fuel would last. This 1908 Model A Flyer proved to the world that the Wright brothers had indeed mastered the air.

During military trials at Ft Meyer in Virginia later that year Orville crashed while flying another Model A, killing his passenger, Lt Selfridge. Analysis showed that a propeller had shifted, severing a wire and leading to catastrophic structural failure. Orville escaped with a few broken bones.

After further successful testing the Wrights where awarded a contract for two "Military Flyers", which were delivered in 1909. One of these original Military flyers is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space museum alongside the 1903 Flyer.

The next machine, Model B, was the world’s first mass-produced airplane. During his tour of Europe in 1908, Wilbur experimented with moving the elevator from the front to the rear of the airplane. This was the primary change included in the Model B. This airplane was produced under license in the US and Europe. Tommy Sopwith acquired one of these European machines sometime around 1911 and it is his "Improved" airplane that is replicated in this kit.

The changes Sopwith made to the standard Model B appear to include reducing the seats to one, adding a fairing to protect the pilot from the wind, reversing the engine and seat locations, and moving the engine and seat closer to the center of the airplane. The Sopwith version also has a different radiator than other B models. When you compare early photographs of these airplanes you realize that no two of them are alike. There are many small variations from airplane to airplane and therefore we can’t be sure how many of these changes where Sopwith’s.

This model could easily be built as a standard Model B by relocating the components, adding a second seat, and scratch building the simple pilot’s control structure.

You could also create an A-Model but this would require considerable rework including a new structure for the front mounted elevator. Another interesting variant would be the shorter winged, single seat Model EX (EX stood for Exhibition). Cal Rodgers flew an EX named the Vin Fiz on the first transcontinental flight in 1911.

• Take two extra sheets of card stock.
• Hold the parts sheet to a light source, carefully apply glue to the reverse of the part to be laminated. Be careful to avoid gluing other parts.
• Stack the parts sheet on a blank sheet of card stock
• Place the laminated sheets under a heavy flat book until dry.
• Repeat to get a total of three layers of card
• If desired, the third layer may be the reverse side of the part as provided in the kit. This is not necessary since all the wooden parts will be completely painted anyway.
• When completely dry, use a straight edge and a new #11 exacto blade (or equivalent) to cut the parts from the sheets. I’ve found that it’s essential to use a cutting mat when trimming parts with a knife and straight edge. Don’t try to cut all the way through in one pass, let the weight of the knife do most of the cutting with only gentle pressure. Always cut away from a corner to get clean angles and avoid damaging perpendicular parts.

There are many struts on this model. You can mass-produce these to save time and ensure uniformity. Glue up a stack of three cards with width the same as the length of a strut. Make the cards long enough so you can get all you need from one stack. Dry this under a heavy weight to make sure it’s perfectly flat. Mark off the width of the struts on both edges of the stock. Slice off the struts, round the edges slightly with sandpaper, and paint light brown or tan (I use Testors flat brown). If you’re a purist, note that the struts on the prototype taper toward the ends. I did not add this detail on my model.

Assembly: Here is an easy and reliable method for assembling biplane wings on card models. Using tacky glue, attach all the struts to one half of the assembly (i.e., the lower wing). Try to get these as perpendicular as possible. The glue will set quickly and usually needs no extra support. When dry, turn the assembly upside down on the opposite part (i.e., the upper wing). Glue the struts one at a time, allowing the glue to set before moving on to the next attachment. Any misalignments will normally work themselves out as you proceed. When the entire assembly is dry, gently push it into final alignment, if necessary. Use this procedure to also assemble the tail truss and the landing gear truss.

The two very good looking and well-designed tanks are formed into cylinders, the ends covered with rounded caps. A pair of straps wrap around each tank to add detail and provide mounting points.