A beautiful large scale model aircraft, the Fairey Fantome.

OF ALL THE LARGE SCALE MODEL AIRCRAFT PLANS AVAILABLE, THESE MAYBE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BIPLANE EVER.

Photo By Doug Martin shows the Fantome on a low level fly by.

This page contains a lot of information on the Fantome and a link to Gerry Bates Plans for those of you who would like to purchase a set of plans.

Jerry has very kindly volunteered to offer copies of my original CAD drawn plans. Click here or on the logo to the left to visit his new site.

About the full size Fantome.

First flown in 1935, the Fantome was, without doubt, one of the most elegant fighter designs of its time. With its beautifully streamlined fuselage and neat cantilever main landing gear units, it was certainly one of the high points in biplane fighter development. Unfortunately it appeared at a time when the majority of new designs were for monoplanes and thus the Royal Air Force was not that interested, although it was evaluated.

The Fantome was intended to meet  a Belgian requirement for a successor to the Fairey Firefly II and easily surpassed all the performance requirements. Unfortunately the prototype crashed during the Belgian competition.

Fairey sent parts for 3 aircraft to its Belgian subsidiary but the Belgian authorities decided to use the Hawker Hurricane. Two examples of the Fantome were sold to the USSR and according to some sources, later showed up in the Spanish Civil War. The third example was evaluated by the British but was never adopted.

The large scale model aircraft described below has an outline as scale as I can make it, including the tail surfaces.

Technical Data.

• Wing span-34ft.6in.
• Length-27ft 7in.
• Height-11ft 4in.
• Wing area-273 sq.ft.
• Engine-one 925HP Hispano-Suiza 12 Y, inline piston engine.
• Weights-Empty 2500lb.Maximum take-off 4120lb.

The Large Scale Model Aircraft, the Fairey Fantome.

Model Specifications.

Wing Span-85.8"

Scale-1:4.82

Weight-23lbs

Total wing area-1804sq in.

Wing loading-29.4 oz./sq.ft.

Power-Moki 1.8

This is a large scale model aircraft, so the plans are 5 sheets, approximately 36"x72". All parts are drawn, full size and placed to make part fabrication easy. In fact sheet 5 shows all the fuselage components, allowing this sheet to be cut- up and pasted to material.  Construction is conventional balsa and ply.

The fuselage is built inverted, over the plan view. The half formers are added over the spruce crutch. The engine cooling tunnel forms the interior structure and is made from 1/8" lite ply. Please take all the steps necessary to make the tail as light as possible.

A full size drawing of the muffler is shown on the plan. The original was manufactured by Bisson Muffler.  Also the oleo legs are shown and these were supplied by Robart.

The wing has a zillion ribs as per the full size! The tailplane and fin/rudder are  built using a 1/16 " balsa core. This large scale model aircraft is not difficult to build but there is a lot of it!

I should mention a bit about the covering. All fabric covered areas were replicated with silver Solar Tex and after all the markings were applied, a clear coat of water based polyurethane was sprayed on.

The highly polished aluminum forward fuselage panels of this large scale model aircraft were replicated with Flite-Metal. This worked out very well, but please be careful with the model after it is finished. The Flite-Metal is quite soft and can be easily marked! (Maybe this just contributes to the "scale-effect"!)

The inverted Moki may raise a few eyebrows but has proven to be very reliable. An on-board glow and the use of an O.S. F type plug have made this possible. Please be careful with the inverted installation when starting. The Moki does like to start "wet" and can be flooded if you are not careful!

By the way, the Moki is now known as the "Mark" and is available from Chief Aircraft. com

As mentioned on a previous page, I have formed an alliance with Jerry Bates Plans. Jerry has agreed to print and mail the large scale model aircraft plans that are listed on this site-Many thanks Jerry!

To order the plans, please click here or on the Jerry Bates logo. Please contact me if you purchase a set of plans and I will be more than willing to answer any of your questions.

For more photos and information on the Fantome please click here

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