Heinkel He 57

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Hey guys!

I'm joining @kitten01 's Heinkel build challenge with the Heinkel He 57 Heron.

The He 57 was Heinkel's last water plane and first all-metal plane. It was designed by Heinkel after "Anthony Fokker told Ernst Heinkel about the problems he had building a metal amphibian aircraft light enough to have an efficient load capacity".

Contrary to its design goals, the He 57 was characterized by being overweight. An elderly lady even remarked at an airshow: "O! Look how cumbersome and heavy, it looks very heavy" in 1931. This, combined with the He 57 being built during the Great Depression, meant the airplane never progressed past the prototype stage. It was sold in 1934 to an aviation school and crashed in 1937.

I plan on using the FT Sea Otter as a base and making heavy modifications to achieve a semi-scale look.

SPECS:
Wingspan: 42 in. (1070 mm)
Length: 31 in. (790 mm)

Cheers!
Sam

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

Here's a preliminary side view ^
The motor pod uses master series style formers and skins while the rest of the plane is good old boxy FT style

Above is the He 57 fuselage plans, and below is the FT Sea Otter fuselage plans.

I went the route of modding existing plans because I don't have experience with designing hulls. I wanted to go with a tried and true design, and the Sea Otter happens to have a double-stepped hull like the He 57.

Other than the hull, the He 57 and Sea Otter are pretty different. I straightened out the aft deck, changed up the nose shape, and put the wing on the top of the fuselage. I'm going to take cues from the FT Widgeon and have a nose hatch for the battery compartment, and a removable wing for the receiver and servo compartment.

Speaking of wings, here they are. They are FT Sportster wings with some simple mods. I changed the aileron size, shrunk the chord length a bit, lengthened the span, and redesigned the wingtips. Due to a slight miscalculation (and a stubbornness to change the wing size), the very tips of the wing don't fit on a sheet of foam. This will change before I release the plans, but for prototyping it's alright.

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

I had half a sheet of foam and some scraps, so I made one wing last night. It's funny how small the wing floats are, they seemed bigger on the computer screen. It went together well, once I make a dollar tree run the build will be in full swing.

 

[ThatsALotOfPlanes]

The good news: the dollar tree had more foam and the plane went together fairly well

The bad news: the dollar tree was out of white foam and I took next to no pictures of the build

This first version is less scale than the final product will be, the goal right now is to get a working prototype in the air before getting bogged down in little cosmetics.

I still need to make a turtledeck for the windshield and top of the nose, and strengthen the tail. After that and servos, she'll be ready to fly!

 

[Ratcheeroo]

The good news: the dollar tree had more foam and the plane went together fairly well

The bad news: the dollar tree was out of white foam and I took next to no pictures of the build

This first version is less scale than the final product will be, the goal right now is to get a working prototype in the air before getting bogged down in little cosmetics.

View attachment 207567
I still need to make a turtledeck for the windshield and top of the nose, and strengthen the tail. After that and servos, she'll be ready to fly!

View attachment 207568

Looking Good!

 

[Jesse Dupreez]

The good news: the dollar tree had more foam and the plane went together fairly well

The bad news: the dollar tree was out of white foam and I took next to no pictures of the build

This first version is less scale than the final product will be, the goal right now is to get a working prototype in the air before getting bogged down in little cosmetics.

View attachment 207567
I still need to make a turtledeck for the windshield and top of the nose, and strengthen the tail. After that and servos, she'll be ready to fly!

View attachment 207568

Have you flone yet?