1913 Fokker Spider

This is a 1/6 size scale model of a 1913 Fokker Spider, Variant 2, M.1 which was my second venture into drawing plans and scratch building back in 1978.  It was made to the standard of what was referred to as “stand-off scale”.  

It has an 88 inch wingspan and was underpowered using a K&B .61 nitro engine.   Control (and I use that term VERY loosely) was rudder/elevator only.  It has somewhere around 60 working brass turnbuckles. 

The fuselage body was made by sandwiching together six (6) pieces of 1 inch wide wood to the proper width, cutting them to length, and then rasp filing, followed by endlessly hand sanding, to get them to the proper shape.  Refer to the picture.  I then (remember this is 1979) knocked on the door of a commercial sign maker and had him vacuum-form ABS plastic over the six (6) sections.  They were then fit to the model’s wood frame. 

Its last flight would be characterized by a catastrophic failure of its wooden frame.  I still have all of the pieces and those six (6) wood fuselage forms are stored away in my attic.  Someday, maybe, I will rebuild it, but this time with the knowledge of a needed aluminum frame and powered by one of today’s wonderful electric motors.