Just Can't Throw These Away... Number Five!

 

Well, this is the last of the aviation sketches that were drawn in the past. I've pretty much cleared out my flat files of sketches that pertain to aircraft and I doubt seriously if there are anymore, but this colored sketch is one that I have no idea where it was sketched. It was torn out from a sketchbook and had no signature or date to it, originally.

I did a little investigative work to find out what kind of aircraft this is, but I never was able to definitively put a finger on it. The engine cowling looks like something from a Fairchild or DeHavilland design, but the tail section is from neither companies. It looks like the cockpit was an add-on because all the photos of planes from what seems to be this period, are open cockpit like the Ryan PT-22. Obviously, because it was in yellow, I assume it was a pre-WWII trainer of some sort, but there's nothing else about the sketch that helps define its origin or use.

Okay, so it is just a nice colored sketch that I just can't throw away!

Oh yes, and I must have added the Cessna later for design reasons because I'm not that fast a draftsman to catch an aircraft mid flight, ha!

Copyright 2012/ Ben Bensen III

Van Nuys Collection#1..."The Dove"

When I first saw this plane I was intrigued because I had never seen any design like this in my life, but I could tell from the engine nacelles that it definitely was a British design. The fuselage and cockpit were slightly reminiscent of a smaller Vickers Viscount, which was a four engined airliner for BOAC. I had made a model of it when I was a kid, but the nose gear had me puzzled. That was then, but today, with the help of the internet, I searched all airliners in British history and eventually up popped the deHavilland DH-104 "Dove", which was a light transport aircraft, seating up to 11-passengers with the original variant powered by two 340-hp engines giving the plane a max speed of 200 mph. Which of the eight variants I drew with a razor point Sharpie and gray markers, I have no clue since 542 of these planes were built since 1945 and flew in many different roles for many different countries till 1985.

Remembering what it looked like when I sketched it and seeing the plane in its original airline colors and numerous company designs is kinda sad. The plane definitely had interesting lines with a slick canopy design that is today a bit similar to our NASA shuttles. Cool!