Dayton-Wright RB-1, Claudio Luchina

The plane was built to compete on the Gordon Bennett prize, it was powered by a Hall-Scott L-6 inline engine and had the pilot hidden inside the fuselage with limited vision, a la Ryan NYP. It had variable camber wing, retractable landing gear, cantilever flying surfaces and monocoque construction, all true modern features for 1920. The model was Mattelized from basswood masters, and a styrene sheet endoskeleton was built. Interior details and painting were done before gluing the fuselage shells. A prop wood was carved, stained, and a photoetched boss added.I made a sill for the windows inside the fuselage, so those could be added at a later time. For them, masks were cut and laid on clear plastic. Alu color was sprayed, and then the windows cut leaving a frame. An alu soda can was used to cut the very tiny control horns. Decals were home made. As it is some times the case, all the plans and 3 views I could get a hand on differed in some regard from the original photos, in a few cases on somewhat important details. This visionary design, although not smiled upon by the goddess Fortune, is an example of cutting edge thinking on the very early stages of aviation development, and points out to the important roll that air races, record flights, good will flights and aviation meetings played on that wonderful era (not in vain called “Golden”) of aviation.