The plans were enlarged 2 times from a set of 52“ control line drawings published in Aeromodeller magazine ( U.K. ) circa 1960.
The wing span will be 104 inches which translates into 1” to 1 ft or 1/12 th scale.
The fuselage on the original plans was made up of balsa blocks and only 8 cross sections shown of which 4 were in the nose to cockpit area. I managed to find other plans but all of the cross sections were a little different. What I have come up with what I think is very close.
The basic fuselage is built on a platform of ¼” ply, which at the widest part is 6” ( bomb bay area ) tapering to 4” at the rear turret. This platform forms the Bomb Bay ceiling. I installed 2- 3/4×3/4” x 48” aluminum angles on each side of this platform to keep it truly flat.
The 1/8th ply fuselage formers are glued in position on top of this platform. I tried to eliminate as much excess wood as possible to keep the weight down.
The 2 bomb bay doors ( each 34” long ) were framed and planked as 1 unit and then cut down the middle to separate them. I built them this way to try to make sure they met up correctly at the centre line. There are 5- ¾” wide hinges on each door with 1 continuous piano wire hinge on each side, this makes it easy to take them off the fuselage if I want to. Individual cotter pins are a pain to install. There are 4 mini Hi Tech servos ( 2 for each door Front and rear ) which work very well now on Channel 5 ( Flaps ) but will have to change later.
The main wing stubs have 3 – 3/4 “ square wing boxes which will accept ¾” square Aluminum tubing, At the present time I have not made up my mind whether to have both port and starboard wings c/w engines completely detachable or have the Inboard engines and stub wings fixed to the fuselage and have the outboard engines and wings detachable. I had a lot of ‘fun’ making sure that these wing boxes were true to the fuselage with at least 6 spirit levels in various positions helping me out.
The tailplane is fairly large with a span of 34” from fin to fin. I am trying to come up with a strong, light means of attaching them to the fuselage but also making them detachable for transportation.. Carbon Fibre rods ( circular or square) are being tried.
I am fortunate that I have a set of drawings showing the geometry of the retracting undercarriage ( 5” dia wheels). The trick is to build it. There is a company out in Vancouver that sells linear electric actuators which I have already contacted, I will need a visit to CWH to take a look at the real Lanc.
I am thinking of using my 4 Saito 82’s as power. I hope to be able to operate all of the functions on the aircraft I.E throttles, flaps, Undercarriage, Ailerons, elevators, rudders, bomb bay doors. I have not figured out a bomb dropping mechanism but I am working on it !!!
Batteries will be as far forward as possible because of the long moment ( 48 “ ) from the C/G to the rear Turret. Even so I think a lot of additional weight is going to be needed to balance the aircraft. 1 thing I have had no experience on is moulding Canopies and gun turrets. This will be a new experience.
I have just enlarged the side view of the Avro York to the same scale as the Lanc. The York uses the same Wings, Engines, Tailplane and undercarriage as the Lanc so building a York fuselage only, I can now have 2 aircraft for the price of 1. The York Fuselage is essentially a square long box not difficult to build.
