La Demoiselle, peut être - RC Groups
Summary
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a wealthy Brazilian émigré who was a considerable influence during the early days of aviation in France. I would like to build an R/C model of an old-timer like this but Ive always viewed the spoked wire wheels and skinny wing ribs as a bit of a stumbling block. Since they are such a visible piece of the machines character and several flying wires attach to the stub axles the wheel construction always seemed a bit problematic. Some time ago I removed the wheels from a shopping trolley and discarded the solid rubber tyre, cut away the plastic spokes and sanded the hub smooth. Using some control line wire I lashed up a 20 spoke wheel in a couple of hours and was very surprised how light and strong it was, only 16 grams, without a tyre.