The Type Aa (Now Danish “Å”) fighter aircraft was the first aircraft manufactured by Nielsen and Winther – a large machine shop in Copenhagen at the time. Six were sold to the Danish Army,  but three later crashed, and the remaining planes were then banned from flying.

Rumour has it that the pilots had long been worried about the safety of the construction, but the ban was apparently due to the poor reliability of the Thulin engine used.

Although this plane was the first indigenous aircraft in the danish army, it has come to light that at least some of the drawings were from the Thulin factory in Sweden. In fact, some of the plans I have seen, were marked named the Thulin ‘L’  aircraft. Although N&W may have received technical assistance from abroad, it was built in Denmark and used by the Royal Danish Army, and as such, deserves to be modelled.

I now have a good set of drawings, so the modelling can start soon. The picture shows the colour-scheme I have decided on.

Specifications:

Crew: 1
Length: 6.60 m (21 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 7.70 m (25 ft 3⅛ in)
Height: 2.8 m (9 ft 2¼ in)
Empty weight: 350 kg (772 lb)
Gross weight: 550 kg (1212 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Thulin rotary engine, 67 kW (90 hp)
Maximum speed: 150 km/h (93 mph)
1 x 8 mm Madsen machine gun

I have taken a lot of pictures of this aircraft. While at the museum where it lives, a volunteer showed me the details of the rotary engine. Thank you, it was very interesting. He also claimed that the Nielsen & Winther Type Aa is a clone of the Nieuport 17. I have not looked into that claim any further, but it looks at least partially correct. Comparing the two, the fuselage looks similar, but the engine cowl definitely does not.

I have got some photos from an old film showing the production of the Nielsen & Winther Type AA Jager aircraft. As you can see, the Nielsen & Winther factory was a huge operation.

The model will be to scale 1:5, giving the model the dimensions:

Length: 1.32 m
Wingspan: 1.52 m

So it’s not a big aircraft.