de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth

My model of a de havilland Tiger Moth is built from  a Revell-Germany 1/32 kit.  The model is not of a real aeroplane, but is a fictional aircraft.  Floats have been attached to this aircraft so that it can take off and land on water. My 'back-story' for this fictional aircraft is that it is owned by a fishing lodge owner who uses it at his lodge for recreational flights over the lodge property and over the adjoining lakes, rivers and forests.  The registration code (CF-HGO) is also somewhat fictional- it was the code temporarily assigned to the film company who made the film "Captains of the Clouds" in 1940.  CF-HGO was the code of protagonists Noorduyn Norseman bushplane - so this is a nod to that aircraft.  The rigging of the float rudders was very complex, and so I've attached a photo or two to try to show this. The front cockpit is covered over by a removable waterproof shroud, and the pilot flies the aircraft from the rear cockpit.

Many de Havilland Tiger Moths were made in Canada by de Havilland Canada during WW2.  They were used as primary trainers by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP)  Many Canadian towns and cities had flight schools located in or near them.  DHCanada DH 82C Tiger Moths were slightly different from Moths made overseas, for one, the wing struts were of metal, not wood as were the English craft, also Canadian Moths often had canopies attached to them, and the engine exhaust pipe had a heat exchanger attached in order to warm the draughty cockpits.  The de Havilland Canada Tiger Moths were labeled as DH 82C's while the English Moths were DH 82 A's.  My Tiger Moth is a DH 82C with its cockpit canopy removed for warm weather operation.

 

From the You Tube video, 'How to fly a Tiger Moth' (see at bottom of this post, the first of the two videos)
 
The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth was a 1930s biplane designed by de Havilland and operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until 1952 when many of the surplus aircraft entered civil operation. Many other nations used the Tiger Moth both in military and civil applications and the ubiquitous little trainer still is in great demand worldwide as a recreational aircraft.

Design and development
The Tiger Moth trainer prototype was derived from the de Havilland Gipsy Moth (DH 60). The main change to the DH Moth series was necessitated by an effort to improve access to the front cockpit since the training requirement specified that the front seat occupant had to be able to escape easily, even wearing a parachute. Access to the front cockpit of the Moth predecessors was restricted by the proximity of the aircraft's fuel tank directly above the front cockpit and the rear support struts for the upper wing. The solution adopted was to shift the upper wing forward but sweep the wings back to maintain the centre of lift. Other changes included a strengthened structure, fold-down doors on both sides of the cockpit and a revised exhaust. It was powered by a de Havilland Gipsy III 120 hp engine and first flew on 26 October 1931 with de Havilland Chief Test Pilot Hubert Broad at the controls.[4] One distinctive characteristic of the Tiger Moth design is its differential aileron control setup. The ailerons (on the lower wing only) on a Tiger Moth barely travel down at all on the wing on the outside of the turn, while the aileron on the inside travels a large amount upwards... this is one of the ways the problem of adverse yaw can be counteracted in an aircraft's control design.

From the outset, the Tiger Moth proved to be an ideal trainer, simple and cheap to own and maintain, although control movements required a positive and sure hand as there was a slowness to control inputs. Some instructors preferred these flight characteristics because of the effect of "weeding" out the inept student pilot

General characteristics
Crew: 2, student & instructor
Length: 23 ft 11 in (7.34 m)
Wingspan: 29 ft 4 in (8.94 m)
Height: 8 ft 9 in (2.68 m)
Wing area: 239 ft² (22.2 m²)
Empty weight: 1,115 lb (506 kg)
Loaded weight: 1,825 lb (828 kg)
Powerplant: 1× de Havilland Gipsy Major I inverted 4-cylinder inline , 130 hp (100 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 109 mph at 1,000 ft (175 km/h at 300 m)
Range: 302 miles (486 km)
Service ceiling: 13,600 ft (4,145 m)
Rate of climb: 673 ft/min (205 m/min) 




Three photos of de Havilland Tiger Moths

from the 'Vintage Wings' website

Be sure to check out these two great videos from You Tube -