In the continuous quest to explore
the boundaries of design several individuals came up with strange but efficient
solutions that in some cases were years ahead of conventional thinking.
Romanian designer Filip Mihail had some advanced, farsighted ideas.
He was unfortunately ignored by the retrograde, shortsighted authorities of the
time. His concepts were developed with the little help he could receive and came
to full fruition in 1933, when the Stabiloplan IV was successfully flown. The
flying wing-cum-kiddie car performed extremely well, so well that it was ignored,
as it is some times the case with good things. It is of note the fore-aft
movement of the wing quoted by sources in order to obtain pitch control.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I couldn’t resist the urge of building this little gem from the Golden
Age, but faced a common challenge in dealing with this kind of subjects:
lack of sufficient information. Still pending is a confirmed color for the
flying surfaces, which appear somewhat dark in the available black and
white photos. A sort of calico color was used in the model but the
above-mentioned surfaces were attached with just a very small dab of white
glue, in order to be removed easily if a confirmed color pops-up in the
future. The fuselage is showing a varnished wood finish in the images,
which was achieved using an acrylic orange base and crimson red and a
smidge of black oil paint applied in streaks with a flat brush in a medium
consistency. Some interior was built to spice up the
bathtub-like fuselage. Aeroclub Models wheels were used to match the
originals and the rest is the usual liberal use of styrene raw material
and bits of metal here and there. The curved windshield is a piece of bent
clear plastic from a blister and the windows were made with Testor’s
liquid window maker.
Together with the recently finished Henri Mignet’s Pou-du-ciel and other
pocket-size design on the cases they make a group that is funnily dwarfed
by contemporary cousins of normal mass.
I just can’t but love
its cartoon-like appearance.
Gabriel
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