The deHavilland DH-104 Dove was designed as the stressed-skin alclad successor to the wood and canvas Dragon Rapide. The deHavilland Dove first flew in 1945, and was used as a short-haul airliner. As opposed to most larger airliners that competed directly with the cheaper-than-dirt war-surplus DC3s, the smaller Dove sold well. The Dove was also sold under the name Heron, and Sea Heron, to many air-forces and navies around the globe. More than 500 were built, and a few are still in use by smaller operators in the UK, Canada and Germany today.

Specifications:

Crew: 2
Capacity: 8 passengers
Length: 39 ft 3 in (11.96 m)
Wingspan: 57 ft (17.37 m)
Height: 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m)
Wing area: 335 sq ft (31.1 m²)
Empty weight: 5,725 lb (2,600 kg)
Loaded weight: 8,800 lb (4,000 kg)
Maximum speed: 202 mph at 8,000 ft (325 km/h at 2,400 m)
Range: 1,070 mi (1,720 km)
Service ceiling: 20,000 ft (6,100 m)
Rate of climb: 920 ft/min (4.7 m/s)
Engines: 2 × de Havilland Gipsy Queen 70 Mk.2 engines

This build-thread was lost during the server crash at my ISP.  I do have back-ups of all designs, just not the web-site. Here is a picture showing how far I got with the Dove. It is basically the fuselage aft of the cockpit, and part of the elevators.

I finally got access to a deHavilland Dove. I have uploaded some of my photos to the gallery section. It’s a really nice aircraft. Note the baggage nets. It looks like an old bus inside.

The new photos have shown that the 3-view is wrong. The shape of the fuselage formers are completely off. While the actual aircraft has a cross-section that is oval in shape, the 3-view shows the cross-sections to be square-ish. I will have to correct this before I can continue.

This is what happens when you don’t have sufficient material when you start a design. Luckily it’s not too difficult to correct, at this stage in the process. Phew!

I have been cleaning up the centre section this morning, and continued with the wing. The dove is scale 1:10 and each wing section is slightly over 70 cm. This is not a huge wing, and the construction is fairly simple. Next step is to do the ailerons and the flaps.

On the real aircraft, the yellow hinge-points are at a slight angle. I will duplicate this by drilling the Robart hinge-points perpendicular to the main spar.

I managed to get a few hours of work done on the Dove – this time on the wing attachment. It is not complete, but it looks great, and it is to scale, including the step in the passenger cabin where the spar crosses the fuselage.

I use tubes to attach the wings to the fuselage. The fuselage, furthermore, has a wing profile attached, It will be part of the wing fillet. It also improves the strength of the fuselage area, as the tubes in the fuselage can be longer than if the wings directly butted against the fuselage.

I have got the outline of the ailerons and flaps done. They are typical deHavilland style, i.e. they taper towards the wing tip. This proved quite difficult to model, especially since the 3-views were inaccurate – which they almost always are. I had the problem here, and also on the DHC-1 Chipmunk.

Thanks to the internet, I found a photo of the ailerons, without canvas on them, which helped a lot.

As I wrote earlier, after I took some photos of the actual aircraft, I discovered that the fuselage formers on the 3-view were the wrong shape. I have now received some original drawings, and I will update the fuselage formers as soon as I can.

Just to keep the build-thread updated. Here is the aileron/flap arrangement, with Robart hinge-points. I have used 4 of the big ones, which is definitely overkill. I will either use only two, or probably use 4 of the smaller ones during the build.

The flap hinges are offset downwards, as seen on the picture I posted earlier. I have duplicated that.

Anyway, the ailerons and flaps will not be solid, but built as a frame that can be fabric covered, just like the real aircraft.

After a long time of inactivity, work has again commenced on the Dove. I have done some experiments with a tapered fin, so see how best to do the aileron hinges. I am happy to say I have found a good solution, using the standard Robart hinge points.

I have started working on the wings. They are remarkably long and slender, and very similar to the deHavilland Dragon Rapide’s wings, except in metal. This aircraft must be a great glider.

The wing attachment section is not completed yet, but I just had to see what this plane is going to look like with wings.

I kind of wish I had designed this model at 1:5 scale and not 1:10. Maybe I should build it a 1:5? The main problems with that are, of course, cost, storage space, and the lack of a nice livery.

Talking about livery, I am partial to the yellow Dunlop Aviation Division colour scheme.

The elevators are now 95% done. There is a bit of work still needed on the tips, but that’s all.

Now I know where to put the R/C equipment. A lot of space, and right up front. Perfect!

Apparently there are two versions of the de Havilland Dove’s ailerons. The one in the 3-view and the one in the photos I have got. The one in the 3-view has a really huge trim- or boost tab on the ailerons, while the other one does not. They, obviously, have the ribs at different positions. Since they will be visible (sort of) through the canvas covering, I will have to get it right.

Sometimes when facing a difficult problem, the only way is to simply bite the bullet and attack the problem head on. This is what I did with the rudder. The question was: How is the shape of the rudder and the turtle-deck? I am not done with the rudder, but at least I am sure the shape is correct.

The ailerons and elevators are now done. I decided on the ailerons on the aircraft on the photos. It appears that the 3-view is of a very early Dove, so going with the ailerons on the photos makes sense.

The elevators look pretty much the same as before, but they have been reinforced and the hinges have been moved slightly.

The ailerons on the Dove are very long and narrow. The Robart hinges are a bit too long for this aircraft. Obviously the hinge-points need to get cut to length, but for the CAD drawing it doesn’t really matter.

I didn’t feel like working on the aircraft this weekend, but I did manage to complete the flaps.

I have beefed up the centre section. It is now light, but strong. There is still a bit of clean-up to be done, before I am 100% happy with it, but I am getting there.

Unlike the centre section on the SAAB 340B, this one will be an integral part of the fuselage. This poses the question, how do I access the R/C equipment and batteries? At this point, I don’t know.

Just a short note to myself with what needs to be done on the Dove before it is complete.

• Clean up elevators.
• Clean up ailerons.
• Complete flaps.
• Complete rudder.
• Reshape fuselage formers.
• Empenage cut-outs so the rudder and elevators are attached to the fuselage.
• Cockpit area.
• Engine mounts and cowls.
• Landing gears.
• General clean-up.
• Lumps and bumps.
• Install R/C equipment.

So, still a bit to be done.