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Bugatti of the Air
Falco builders might be interested to know about, or more about, another sleek, beautiful, and brilliantly engineered airplane made almost entirely of wood, the Bugatti 100P. The 100P was designed 15 years before the Falco by Louis de Monge, and built in a Paris furniture factory as German troops advanced on the city. Jaap Horst describes its construction:

".... the fuselage is far from conventional. It is built up of a wood sandwich, buttressed by rectangular box sections. On this polyhedral frame, layers of balsa wood were glued, and then carved to obtain the aerodynamic shape. After shaping, hardwood rails were set into the balsa, to take concentrated loads around engine mounts, canopy etc. The fuselage was then covered with strips of tulip wood, to form the skin. After sanding the fuselage was covered with linen and dope.

"The wing construction follows the same basic idea. A single box spar carries completely through the fuselage, making a one-piece wing. The airfoil was then built around the spar with balsa and tulip wood. All fuel was carried inside the spar.

Photographs, drawings, and notes can be found on the following web sites:

The Bugatti Revue     Jacob's Bugatti Pages     Airfoils

Brad Bellows
bbarch@channel1.com