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DH 88

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Atomic_Sheep

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
201
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hi guys, as the name of the thread suggests, I'm interested in the De Havilland 88 Comet. I fell in love with this machine the minute I saw it but the idea of building one for myself literally popped in to my head this morning (but I've wanted to fly for a very long time). I've got experience building model airplanes (RC and free flight), so obviously thats not exactly what one might call experience, but none the less.

I would like to find out a few things about the plane (and yes I know there's really not all that much info available for it) but they are more general aviation questions I think. As a sidenote I would like to mention that apart from general external looks, I do not much care for reproductions of the original plane.

1.) in terms of flyability, what do you think a plane such as the 88 would be like?

2.) since it was historically of a wooden construction, what do you think would be the consequence of me building one from aluminium? Weight wise and strength wise? Obviously strength would be improved but weight?

3.) linked to 2.) but since I mentioned I care little for exact reproductions, I obviously care little for the 170kw straight 6 Gipsy motors that were in the original aircraft. I want to fit into the original aircrafts engine (cowlings?) but I would prefer to have something modern powering mine. One would assume something more modern would have more power, better reliability and fuel consumption and as a result I would imagine that if I was to assume the answer to 2.) was that aluminium would make the aircraft weight a lot more, then would the newer engines be able to counter the weight increase? I have no idea of whats out there on the market powerplant wise so I really have no idea what can be or can't be done.

P.S. I'm not entirely sure of which section this is supposed to go in, hopefully I'm in the right one, but admin is obviously free to move this thread to an appropriate section.
 
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