Full scale WWII plane blueprints.

rcwingman

being Ghetto since 2016
Is it possible to get,
download, buy complete WWII plane blueprints?
From the technology background it sould not be illegal to buy them.
right? Or am I on the terrorist watchlist now?

I am realy interested in the mechanical parts in therms of inspiration.
It should not be very hart to remake it simpler into RC in
modern days of 3D-printers and microcontrollers.

Any ideas?
 
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AkimboGlueGuns

Biplane Guy
Mentor
You may be able to find them, but I'd be willing to bet that the companies that own the designs still maintain copyright on the plans. You could always E mail and ask. I've sent a few e-mails to boeing, lockheed, and grumman over the years with questions and they've always been more than helpful.
 

rcwingman

being Ghetto since 2016
Thanks for that.

So the problems are copyright issues?
But they will lose its right after some decates i heard someone saying except you are refreshing them. Right?
So there must be some russian, german or american WWII Blueprint design available somewhere.
Maybe a book on amazon.

What ever I found on google seams to be not very detailed.
A look into that original blueprints could be super interesting for model aviation.
Hatches, landinggears, flaps => all that mechanical stuff. Hidden gems! Amazing!
 

willsonman

Builder Extraordinare
Mentor
Actually, YES! You can contact the national archives and they can, for a fee, send you blueprints of what they have. Carl Lydick (Wilmracer), Patrick Murphy (earthsciteach), and I recently went to the Udvar Hazy museum in VA and the restoration hangar was having an open-house. Part of that was touring the archives there and one of the kind ladies did inform us that it is possible. Some may be digitized and could be sent electronically but not all of it has been scanned.
 

rcwingman

being Ghetto since 2016
thanks willsonman.

why is there no online "wiki" for historical and outdated machine blueprints like trains, aircrafts or ships?
For "old" blueprints with no military, industrial or political interest.
These are cultural goods that can provide great inspiration for all kind of useful and beneficial things.
Or do I miss something?
Is there such a official resource somewhere?
 
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OkieDave

New member
You could try looking for maintenance manuals. Note the last time I did this for a full-scale aircraft, it came in about eight binders and was several hundred dollars...used. If it's still being flown, though, it has to have an annual inspection, so the mechanics need to have the specs available.
 
Thanks for that.

So the problems are copyright issues?
But they will lose its right after some decates i heard someone saying except you are refreshing them. Right?
So there must be some russian, german or american WWII Blueprint design available somewhere.
Maybe a book on amazon.

What ever I found on google seams to be not very detailed.
A look into that original blueprints could be super interesting for model aviation.
Hatches, landinggears, flaps => all that mechanical stuff. Hidden gems! Amazing!
Back then during WW2 copyright wasn't a thing with the b-29 if the soviets could create their own replica of the b-29
 

eric75

Member
These are the operation and service manuals, meaning they have been compiled to provide only the fraction of information that they thought was necessary for aircraft owners to have.

It would be fascinating to look at the engineering and design history for some of these parts. It's my understanding that up until the 1980s, shapes and dimensions were often documented with master models and instead of paper drawings, but there would also be thousands of sheets for parts and assemblies for the engineers to reference during the life of the program. They would also need drawing packages for: tooling jigs and fixtures, factory layout drawings for logistics planning and process optimization, build instructions, and documentation of acceptable and recommended repair practices.
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
I work on a B-17 at a local air museum, I do a lot of the electrical work. The guy I work with gets our diagrams from here:

https://aircorpslibrary.com/

It's not free though. Warbirds are incredibly complicated machines, there can be thousands of documents associated with a single aircraft. If you don't know exactly what your looking for, specifically the document number, it can be really tough to find anything.
 

quorneng

Master member
The USSR certainly did not ask the US government for permission to copy the B29. They just exactly copied one the four B29s that had landed in Russia which they never handed back despite repeated requests.