Scale replica P-39?

[David E. Powell]

I was just thinking of one of my favorite planes, the unique P-39.

I was thinking of how a 1/2, 2/3 or 3/4 scale home built tribute plane
might be pulled off.

The main question of course is whether to go mid-engined or not. I
believe that there was at least one civil plane out there with a drive
shaft from behind the passenger compartment up to the nose. So maybe
those shafts are out there as spares to be adapted. If not something
else would be needed.

Then of course one wonders what type of engine one would use? I am
guessing an ambitious project could use a sportscar engine like a
Corvette's. A smaller scale or more straight-up plan could use a
conventional aero engine.

Just something I have thought about as a pipe dream for a number of
years!

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article
<8388c504-0e54-4396...@o13g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,

Molt Taylor designed and built the Imp and Mini-Imp; Prof. Lesher of the
U of Michigan built another pusher in the 1960s.

Those were all pushers. Taylor got around the torsional resonance
problems by using something called a "Flexidyne" coupling, essentially a
"soft" coupling, consisting of either shot or loose ball bearings in a
housing, that absorbed some of the power pulses.

If you could pull it off, a P-39 replica with a small-block aluminum
V-8, would certainly turn some heads!

--
Remove _'s from email address to talk to me.

[cavelamb]

As you can't quite see in this small cutaway, the drive shaft
goes close under the pilot seat. Scaling the airplane down and
trying to keep the rear engine might be kind of a problem (!).

However, when scaling DOWN, there are some interesting side effects
that just might be interesting. It _might- be possible to adopt
a forward engine setup adn still maintain weight and balance
BECAUSE the engine could be so much lighter than proportional
(double/square/cube scaling up also means half/ sqrt/ cube root
wne scaling down)

No, I've not done any numbers on this. Just remembering the way
the scaled P38 went together. Except for that unfortunate placement
of the main spar. :(

For what it's worth...

[David E. Powell]

I see your point. Also the P-39 actually had a pretty big nose
relative to the rest of the airplane, it was just used for purposes
other than housing the engine. Since the replica would probably not be
carrying a massive cannon (darn) the trick would be putting an engine
and nose gear in there, then concealing the exhaust to some degree.
The original engine space could then be used for fuel, cargo space,
etc.

Thank you!