Andy Johnston’s Avro 504 Projecct

Andy Johnston has at last (!) started on a build to create a suitable vehicle for his home-made Bentley aero engine. It’s an Avro 504, and here’s what he says:

‘The first thing I had to do was make the great space I have as a workshop into useable space and not the tip it has been since I moved in nearly seven years ago. I’ve rigged up a curtain to separate engineering and aeromodelling to reduce the amount of balsa dust getting into my machinery. I then cleared my long building bench and chopped down the drawer units and fitted them under said bench. I also threw out a lot of junk!

Andy-Avro-1
Anyway, the stage was then set to start building the Avro 504K for the Bentley Rotary. I’ve scaled up the 1/4 scale Boddington plans to suit the size of cowl needed for the Bentley but not too large or the fus. wouldn’t fit in my trailer. The end result is about 27% which equates to 117″ wing span.

andys-engine_2

As the plans were designed around a Zenoah 62, I’ve redesigned the firewall and F2 to accommodate both the Bentley and the Zenoah. The intention is to ballast the front end with the Zenoah installed and prove the flying abilities airframe, then remove the ballast and swap engines. The pictures show the workshop and the start of the Avro with the Bentley in place. I managed to devise a module for the Bentley to be installed complete with it’s throttle servo to save having to fiddle about with linkages in situ.

That will do for now, I’m recovering from the shock of the expense of embarking on a project on this scale.’

Andy Johnston it all goes in

So, from an editorial point of view, that’s three garages, a utility room, a dining room and a kitchen that have made it to the website in one month. Do I sense a theme emerging….?