1:24 Le Rhone 9J

The engine the Germans copied

The Le Rhone 9J was among the best nine-cylinder rotaries of its day: one hundred ten horses, reliable running and an unmistakable look, for which the external intake pipes running from the crankcase up to the cylinder heads were responsible. It was precisely this type that was taken apart in Germany and built again under the designation Oberursel Ur.II, so that the Fokker fighters would have something to fly with. The copy, however, never reached the quality of the original, mainly because of the substitute materials and the wretched lubricant that the blockade forced on Germany.

Under the cowlings of the Nieuports

With this unit the French Nieuports of the later series took off, as did the British Sopwiths and a number of training machines. It was controlled differently from what we expect today: instead of a throttle lever the pilot had an ignition cut-out with which he silenced the engine for a moment, and on the approach to landing he used it practically without pause. Idling in today's sense of the word did not exist and landing was in essence done in a glide. The engine did not quieten even while taxiing, which is why machines on the ground were held by chocks under the wheels.

A large scale, large demands

1:24 is the most rewarding scale for a resin engine and at the same time the strictest: every bubble, every mark of the mold and every inaccuracy in the alignment of the cylinders is visible. On the other hand it pays here to go into detail for which smaller scales have no room – ignition leads of thin wire, a hint of soot on the exhaust ports, the gleam of oil in the lower part of the cylinder star. The parts are divided from the casting blocks with a saw.