skwier
Active Member
For those of you who like early airplanes or ultralights you may be interested in this new report about modern replicas of the Demoiselle ("Damselfly") No. 20, designed and flown by Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1909.
http://www.westernexplorers.us/Demoiselle-Originals-and-Replicas-Santos-Dumont.pdf
There are something like two dozen flying replicas around the world. If you do not know the Damselfly you may find it surprizingly like a modern ultralight in concept. Some of the new planes have impressive engineering, construction, and clever ideas. Among them all the "23bis" by Lee Fischer of Wisconsin is, for me, the closest to Santos-Dumont's aircraft in lightness, performance, and overall spirit.
(Not that the world needs another one, but I am drawing construction plans for yet another replica, to recreate the original aircraft's appearance in modern materials and with some design changes for improved safety and reliabily and control. For example the main bamboo longerons are replaced with aluminum tube of similar size. Building it is only a remote long shot: I have no stable or field large enough for that horse.)
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http://www.westernexplorers.us/Demoiselle-Originals-and-Replicas-Santos-Dumont.pdf
There are something like two dozen flying replicas around the world. If you do not know the Damselfly you may find it surprizingly like a modern ultralight in concept. Some of the new planes have impressive engineering, construction, and clever ideas. Among them all the "23bis" by Lee Fischer of Wisconsin is, for me, the closest to Santos-Dumont's aircraft in lightness, performance, and overall spirit.
(Not that the world needs another one, but I am drawing construction plans for yet another replica, to recreate the original aircraft's appearance in modern materials and with some design changes for improved safety and reliabily and control. For example the main bamboo longerons are replaced with aluminum tube of similar size. Building it is only a remote long shot: I have no stable or field large enough for that horse.)
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