Wonwings diary-The Miles Aerovan light freighter.
The Miles Aerovan.
Miles was a prolific designer,and a mass of projects passed through the drawing office,though many of them came to nothing.One unusual looking design which did make the grade was the Miles M.57 Aerovan,a twin engined light freighter which first flew in 1945.In appearance the wings and tail unit were similar to the Messenger ,but somewhat larger,while the fuselage was of pod and boom layout.A number of UK and overseas orders were placed and the Aerovan entered production with a longer pod than the prototype,which was designated the Aerovan Mk.1,and the second prototype the Aerovan Mk.2.The first production Aerovan Mk.3 was similar to the Mk.2,and seven of these were built with 150 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major 3 engines,which was the standard Aerovan powerplant,the next version the Mk.IV differed in detail and 40 of these were built,the final version was the Aerovan Mk.VI which had 195 hp Lycoming 0-435-4A powerplants,this was later fitted with a Hurel-Dubois high aspect ratio wing in 1957 and became the HDM.105.The aircraft would carry a family car,one undesireable feature of the Blackburn Cirrus engine was to have the crankshaft break in flight,thus the propeller would rip through the sides of the fuselage directly in line with the pilot,something that happened more than once.
The model of the Aerovan was made from various materials,the fuselage was made up from a crutch form of thick card laid into a '+' shape,this was then treated with Johnsons clear to seal it, then Das Pronto was laid and built up between the 'L' shape of the form to get the complex shape necessary and smoothed down with a pallette knife,the tail unit was two laminnations of 1=64th Miralyte ply,the boom was made from an old toothbrush handle suitable filed to shape,the wheels were from a childrens bead pack and represent the low pressure tyres nicely,the wings were made from Bass and the props carved from Jelutong.
The aircraft represented is OO-ERY of the Belgium Royal Family,this came to England and was registered as G-AJOG to a company called Devonair Ltd who intended to operate her on an air service to the Lundy Isles,although she is known to have flown at least once to the Lundy Isles the service was operated instead on an Ad-Hoc basis with a Auster 5 aircraft G-AJXC.
The Miles Aerovan.
Miles was a prolific designer,and a mass of projects passed through the drawing office,though many of them came to nothing.One unusual looking design which did make the grade was the Miles M.57 Aerovan,a twin engined light freighter which first flew in 1945.In appearance the wings and tail unit were similar to the Messenger ,but somewhat larger,while the fuselage was of pod and boom layout.A number of UK and overseas orders were placed and the Aerovan entered production with a longer pod than the prototype,which was designated the Aerovan Mk.1,and the second prototype the Aerovan Mk.2.The first production Aerovan Mk.3 was similar to the Mk.2,and seven of these were built with 150 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major 3 engines,which was the standard Aerovan powerplant,the next version the Mk.IV differed in detail and 40 of these were built,the final version was the Aerovan Mk.VI which had 195 hp Lycoming 0-435-4A powerplants,this was later fitted with a Hurel-Dubois high aspect ratio wing in 1957 and became the HDM.105.The aircraft would carry a family car,one undesireable feature of the Blackburn Cirrus engine was to have the crankshaft break in flight,thus the propeller would rip through the sides of the fuselage directly in line with the pilot,something that happened more than once.
The model of the Aerovan was made from various materials,the fuselage was made up from a crutch form of thick card laid into a '+' shape,this was then treated with Johnsons clear to seal it, then Das Pronto was laid and built up between the 'L' shape of the form to get the complex shape necessary and smoothed down with a pallette knife,the tail unit was two laminnations of 1=64th Miralyte ply,the boom was made from an old toothbrush handle suitable filed to shape,the wheels were from a childrens bead pack and represent the low pressure tyres nicely,the wings were made from Bass and the props carved from Jelutong.
The aircraft represented is OO-ERY of the Belgium Royal Family,this came to England and was registered as G-AJOG to a company called Devonair Ltd who intended to operate her on an air service to the Lundy Isles,although she is known to have flown at least once to the Lundy Isles the service was operated instead on an Ad-Hoc basis with a Auster 5 aircraft G-AJXC.
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