akydd
10-18-2021, 06:06 PM
Hi All,
I am new here, but wanted to seek advice about a dream project. For years I have wanted to build an airplane and have admired the Hawker Hart, a British interwar two seat biplane. It has a 37 foot wingspan and an early v-12 Rolls Royce. Not a great homebuilding project at full scale, but a 2/3 scale version would give it about a 25 foot wing span and 20 foot length, making it similar to the Hatz, Starduster Too, and other two place homebuilt biplanes. My dream is to build such a scale version, as faithful to the original as reasonable but with some modifications for homebuilding, such as wooden wings, and of course a much smaller engine. By way of comparison, Fisher Flying Products has an 80% scale Tiger Moth and there are plans for a scale Hawker Fury, which was a single seat successor to the Hart.
Is this feasible? How to proceed? I have the book by Alex Crawford, which has some drawings. The only flyable version is at Shuttleworth in the UK. I think they might have larger scale, more detailed drawings. I don't know CAD and also don't know aircraft design. Is it possible to commission an aeronautical engineer to create a scale set of plans? In the boat world people commission designs all the time but I don't hear of this in the airplane world. If I did the design myself, as a non-credentialed person, would I have to get it approved by the FAA? Would it be insanely risky for me to even try such a thing, even following, say the Startduster design for materials and sizes of fittings? Any suggestions welcome.
Andy Kydd
I am new here, but wanted to seek advice about a dream project. For years I have wanted to build an airplane and have admired the Hawker Hart, a British interwar two seat biplane. It has a 37 foot wingspan and an early v-12 Rolls Royce. Not a great homebuilding project at full scale, but a 2/3 scale version would give it about a 25 foot wing span and 20 foot length, making it similar to the Hatz, Starduster Too, and other two place homebuilt biplanes. My dream is to build such a scale version, as faithful to the original as reasonable but with some modifications for homebuilding, such as wooden wings, and of course a much smaller engine. By way of comparison, Fisher Flying Products has an 80% scale Tiger Moth and there are plans for a scale Hawker Fury, which was a single seat successor to the Hart.
Is this feasible? How to proceed? I have the book by Alex Crawford, which has some drawings. The only flyable version is at Shuttleworth in the UK. I think they might have larger scale, more detailed drawings. I don't know CAD and also don't know aircraft design. Is it possible to commission an aeronautical engineer to create a scale set of plans? In the boat world people commission designs all the time but I don't hear of this in the airplane world. If I did the design myself, as a non-credentialed person, would I have to get it approved by the FAA? Would it be insanely risky for me to even try such a thing, even following, say the Startduster design for materials and sizes of fittings? Any suggestions welcome.
Andy Kydd