kasper

I have got to admit that climb rate is impressive for an ultralight pilot ... 828km/h up

I know it only has that for a short time and it falls of but Woo Hoo!

You can obtain the drawing sets and a permission to build for no cost if you want - private message me if interested as it’s a two step process. 
 

or AAW here in oz are building a metal dw1 

https://www.aircraftkits.com.au/blank-5/

The main profile pic is the four seater White Lightning not the single seater Lightning Bug. 

"a single 180 horsepower Lycoming HIO 360 is enough to get the helicopter and both occupants airborne"

 That makes me laugh ... ONLY 180hp to get two people into the sky ... types the guy with a two seater R447 ultralight that manages to get two people up there on 40hp.

All noise and thrashing themselves those helicopters 😛

Nev,

Wood and fabric may be old fashioned skills BUT they are materials that are better suited to repair than composites and easier than metal... and potentially more 'green' than the fashionable composites.

This coming from a middle aged fart who has built and played in all construction methods and I am trending back towards wood and fabric for my last two aircraft and looking at replacing the composite wing on one of mine with replacement in wood n fabric.

15 hours ago, Marty_d said:

That looks like fun.  I think there must be an error in the dates though - said he built it in only 2 years??

No - the dates are correct.

John was a skilled and busy chap ... but with a job at technical college that allowed him freedom to build. 

He had built a Curry Wot previously and the Fury structure is based on the Wot.

When it came to his Spitfire it took him longer as it is a much more substantial and complex airframe.

17 hours ago, facthunter said:

It's not really fast although they have gone to a lot of trouble with fairings etc, The main problem with wood was the glues used at the time (Mainly casein) I don't know why the nose is so long. Maybe fuel there but that would need  careful managing. if there is. Nev

Yes,  

500l up front, 580l behind that and 90l behind the pilots used to trim out the 500l up front.

I gather you used the 500 up front first  transferring from the 90 forward as required ... I recall reading a report on the Mollinsons and the troubles they had moving fuel and getting the trim right but cannot recall where i read it so can't direct you to the source.

Grosvenors house now only flies on one tank and limited fuel as they hardly need 6 hours endurance for display purposes.

Also I think they are flying gipsy queens out of the later Dove series rather than the original race engines so reliability now is better even if power would be down ... couldn't get the high octane fuel anyway could they? 

16 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

It is fast @190knots for a pair of 230hp engines. For the range quoted it would have to carry about 1300litres of fuel all of which is in the fuselage.  

They were a little more efficient than that - 1170L of fuel in three tanks in the fuselage.

Also  they were race engines - required high octane fuel and when given crap fuel blew pistons very easily.

And even when not blowing pistons the engines were regularly blowing oil pipes and having other issues ... and then there were the two position variable props and the issues with them ... and the undercarriage that regularly refused to retract.

At least the under carriage problem was better than refusing to extend 😉

I have always been fond of the last of the DH88's - named Boomerang - that had a nice silver and blue paint scheme - the original 3 whilst stunning in their all over green/red/black with silver/while/gold stripe were not to my eye as nice as the overall silver with tapering blue on nose/engines.

I've seen Grovenors House fly at old warden and from a pilots perspective it looks is scary at takeoff and touchdown - there is no visibility directly ahead, the three point attitude is at the stall (15deg), the highly tapered wings are happy to drop at the stall and it all happens at over 85nts minimum.

Got to love the endurance specs ... combat range 360nm = 720nm range ... cruise is around 500kts so endurance is less than 90 min ... much less I am guessing if you were to climb at full afterburner for more than just the first 10-15,000ft which is less than 30 secs after liftoff when initial climb rate is 800fps  😲 

And just to note - 4 of 6 pics in the initial posting have the modified tailplane which is both lower on the fin and larger to address instability issues that did exist in the original express.

Grom Google image search is appears the Wheeler expresses in OZ are the original high position tail and would be expected to have some potentially unpleasant behaviour around the edges of the flight envelope in some conditions. 

Woo hoo!   That’s G-CCZR and I was on a week long flying holiday with two other EclipR in France - that pic was the morning I ended up hand propping one of the other EclipRs due to a flat battery.

I now have one of the other ones from that trip - BYSS - in the container waiting reassembly and putting on the oz register as well as a 447 and a 503 Raven.