DAD'S AIRFORCE YARNS: THE ETERNAL TRAINER: The deHaviland Tiger Moth:

THE ETERNAL TRAINER: The deHaviland Tiger Moth:

   She was the most iconic plane – the Queen of the Biplane Era. Designed and built from the early 1930s, the Royal Air Force could not have had the trained pilots who took on Goering’s Luftwaffe and defeated them in the Battle of Britain – August / September 1941.

   With an Airframe of Pine & Cedar, Silk and Piano Wire, the plane seated two – Trainee in the front cockpit & instructor in the rear seat in a Tandem configuration. It was, technically fully aerobatic – but it did the aerial dances with a slow motion, giving the trainee a gentle introduction to the various swings in G-Forces, the feeling of flying upside down and feeling your bowels move through your guts to the top of your head.

   Its’ Barrel Roll was like a slow swimmer lazily rolling over in the warm sun. It could do the full Loop and the Immelman Roll too, but these took thrice the time even a WWI plane like the Sopwith Camel would. But it taught pilots all the basics of both Fighter Flying as well as Transports. It had basic Instrumentation so Trainees could learn Flight Navigation, R/T Communications, Cross-Country and Night Flying.

   Both Pilots and Co-Pilots got their Full / Half Wings on the Tiger Moth. There were different “Half-Wing” Badges – “N” signified Navigator, “S” for signaler “A, G or B’ for armaments. My Dad got a very short Training – a War Commission which he earned on 19^th November 1944, got posted to and flew the very first day on a Vultee Vengeance Dive Bomber. And crashed too – read the earlier story.  

 

If a census of Vintage Planes still flying around the world is taken, the old Tiger Moth must be most numerous. Besides. There are modern day replicas – using modern materials, lighter and stronger than the original made by dozens of registered Aero Plane Kit manufacturers. You can get a full-fledged 2/3 0r 80% scale Tiger Moth Kit for as low as US $ 10,000/- excluding the latest modernized Lycoming Engine. Many of the original Tiger Moths are still doing work – the most amazing was an original doing sheep mustering work in New Zealand!

The Tiger Moth is also the greatest favorite among Aero Modelers for over Eight Decades. There is available on the internet Model Tiger Moths you can make using Japanese Origami Techniques from a Ten Dollar Bill! There are Paper Cut & Paste models starting from 6” Wing Span.

There are designs for Balsa Wood Models from 12 to 30” Wing Span. From Rubber Powered Free Flight to Fully R/c Controlled powered by Gasoline or Electric Power. Starting from 1/72, there are scale models –Starting from 1/72, there are scale models – Static, Flying up to 50% of original size.

But the Plane is also an aero modeler’s nightmare. I’ve been trying to successfully fly a Tiger Moth since age seven! I may have made several dozen models out of all kinds of Materials – if I remember, the first was from a Colgate Toothpaste Tube. But they rarely flew. The best Flying Model was a Rubber Band Powered (Free Flight) 11” Wingspan Balsa Wood and Kite Paper Model I had made. It flew for exactly 90 seconds till it crashed into a rather tall Tree and smashed into irreparable smithereens.

This is both the Joy and Sorrow of the Aero Modeler. To spend up to a hundred hours painstakingly assembling the model only to have it crash on first flight.

However, today, things have changed. The average Aero Modeler is more a Flyer than an Assembler. Planes can be bought off the shelf in RTF (Ready to Fly) form or in ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) where you can get ahead with the flying in a couple of hours. The population of Aero Model Assemblers who could put in a hundred hours of assembly time using scores of component parts, sticking each together painstakingly with glue – is shrinking, if not already gone obsolete.

Keeping this in mind, and yet wanting to develop the Aero Modeling interest among youth from very young ages, AIR COMMODORE AERO MODELS has brought out, as a beginner kit, a set of Seven Origami Paper Folding Planes – Concorde, F-117A Night Hawk, F-15, F-16, Mirage 2000, Jaguar & Mig-29K.

   The second set, “Warplanes of 65&71 Indo-Pak Conflicts” has three planes – Hawker Hunter, Gnat & Mig-21.  These are made of light plastic framework and Styrofoam skin and are 12” wing span. These are fully 3-D, to scale and with original Squadron Insignia, these can be Chuck or Catapult Launched or can even be fitted with a JetEx Motor.

For the Vultee Vengeance, we offer a 22” Wingspan Control Line Model to be powered by a Gasoline Engine.  There is also a “Cut & Paste” Static Table Model 8” made from Card Paper.   

We have developed an Indian Navy Sea Hawk Fighter jet – again made of light plastic framework and Styrofoam skin. It is 20” wingspan and is powered by a 40 cm. Ducted Fan. The same power plant is used for the Vampire.

 

Under Development is the Tiger Moth and the DC-3 Dakota.

We have also started design work on the Fairchild Packet. This is an ambitious project with multi-material structure and with a wing span of 100”. It will be a full-fledged UAV or Drone with its own GPS / Google Earth based Navigation and Auto Pilot.

Latest Cardboard Cut/Paste Range Prototyping: Dassault Raffele, Mig -29K and LCA Tejus.