Category:Meccano Aeroplane Constructor

Meccano Aeroplane Constructor Outfit No.2 [image info]

1938 advert for Meccano Aeroplane Constructor Outfits [image info]

1935 "special parts" list for Aeroplane Constructor [image info]

Meccano Aeroplane Pilots, 1936 small-advert in Meccano Magazine [image info]

Aero clockwork Motors, 1939 catalogue [image info]

1940: Some sets now in camouflage colours [image info]

The Meccano Aeroplane Constructor outfits started to appear in 1931.

The kits had their own sets of specialised parts, and could produce a vast range of aeroplane types, partly because of the clever tactic of not committing to a particular scale. Aerodynamic limitations meant that basic fuselage and wing shapes weren't too different for large and small aircraft, so an airframe could have an open cockpit and a comparatively large pilot and become a single-seater plane, or it could have window-pieces fitted along its sides, and a jutting multi-window enclosed cockpit shell fitted forward, and with a few more changes could represent a very large airliner.

As with the main Meccano range, Aeroplane Constructor Kits came at different levels (00, 0, 1, 2 and No.2 Special), but the pieces from the smaller sets didn't work with those from the larger ones.

The sets included wings for monoplanes and biplanes, bodyshells, wheels, propellers, metal struts and cord for reinforcement lines, and in the larger sets there were also wheel covers, nine-piston engine block pieces, and seaplane floats, which were useful for standing models of very large airliners, where the standard wheels would be out of scale. For wheeled models, a contrate gear below the fuselage connecting to a special geared axle-piece between the front wheels allowed the plane's propeller to rotate when the model was pushed along the ground.

Aero Motors

Meccano Ltd also produced two small specialised clockwork motors for the range. While the No.1 Aero Motor just ran a plane's central front propellor, the No.2 Aero Motor had a second driveshaft that could protrude through the bottom of the fuselage and drive a pair of axled wheels via an unobtrusive contrate gear. The No.2 motor also came with additional useful items that included a small rear wheel for the fuselage. The aero motors differed from the usual Meccano clockwork motors in being less heavy-duty and less "clunky", in being physically smaller, and in not having a reverse gear (which would be fairly pointless for this application).

Run your Models with an Aero Clockwork Motor

To obtain the greatest amount of pleasure from the Aeroplane Constructor Outfits the models should be set in motion by means of the Aero Clockwork Motors. Two different types of motors are available for this purpose, and are specially designed to fit inside the fuselage of a model aeroplane. The No.1 Motor drives the propellor at high speed and adds tremendously to the realism of the aeroplane, giving it a lifelike effect. The No.2 Motor drives the Propellor and also the Landing Wheels, so that the complete model taxies along the ground just like an actual machine. It may be made to travel in a straight line or in circles as desired, by adjusting the special Tail Wheel supplied with the Motor to replace the usual Tail Skid.

Both the No.1 and No. 2 Motors are supplied with a Propellor Control Rod and Extension Piece, and these should be fitted in place before either of the Motors is placed in position.

Full-page adverts

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  1932

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  1934

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  1934-1935

Example Models

No.1 and No.2 Outfit models

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  Standard Light Biplane

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  Triple-Engined Airliner

No.1 and No.2 "Special" Outfit models

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  High Wing Airliner

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  Single-Engined Commercial Biplane

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  Commercial Flying Boat

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  Light Biplane

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  Triple-Engined Low Wing Monoplane

No. 0 Outfit models

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  High Wing Monoplane

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  Biplane

Parts

Nos 1 and 2 Aeroplane Outfit Parts

Nos 1 and 2 Special Aeroplane Outfit Parts

The "Special" outfits

The No.1 and No.2 Special Aeroplane Constructor Outfits represented a slightly improved (and more expensive) almost immediate redesign of the system.

The most physically obvious improvements were the incorporation of special pieces for the construction of airliners - there were new side-wall fuselage plates showing side-windows, and a new "cowl" piece that could be added above and just back from the fuselage nose to represent the enclosed cabin and windows of an airliner. Other improvements included the reshaping of the lower fuselage to allow the construction of more realistic-looking seaplanes, and moveable tail control surfaces.

The No.0 Outfit

The No.0 Aeroplane Constructor Outfits appeared last, and (as one might expect) was a simpler, cheaper, smaller, more entry-level system. Rather than attempting to be fully Meccano, the No.0 set had fewer holes, and the holes and nuts and bolts were also smaller, as on the Motor Car Constructor Outfits.

One advantage of the smaller parts was that the aircraft fuselage was now a single piece, and the fuselage holes were smaller and (joy!) were threaded, making it much simpler to attach other items to it - one no longer had to hold a nut in place with a finger inserted into the bodyshell while tightening a bolt, a common cause of sore fingers.

The end of Meccano Aeroplane Constructor

As World War 2 loomed, the aeroplane constructor sets were modified to remove markings that might make the sets useful to The Enemy for training pilots and gunners.

The sets reached a natural closure during WW2, as the wartime investment in better and more efficient aircraft designs meant that aeroplane shapes were now increasingly tailored to the tasks that there were designed to carry out, and increasingly optimised for scale. Up until this point, aircraft designs had been fairly generic, since they'd often been designed for very limited production runs, and the wing is a large aircraft tended to look very much like that of a small plane.

However, with the new generation of planes that appeared during WW2, mass-production (and the need to outfly and outfight competing aircraft) made it very worthwhile for designers to fine-tune the shapes, and a Heinkel wing now looked quite different to a Spitfire wing or the wing of a Lancaster bomber. With the mass-production of these planes for the war, the public became used to recognising their distinctive outlines, and the idea of a generic constructor kit that could not make recognisable versions of these "celebrity" aircraft became less attractive.

When Meccano Ltd restarted toy production after the War, Aeroplane Constructor was not one of the lines that came back into production - the toy had had an honorable run, but aircraft design had now advanced too far and become too sophisticated for the concept to work any more.

See also:

• Aeroplane Construction Sets (Märklin)

External links

• Tony Press, Meccano Aeroplane Constructor {mmci.com.au} - downloadable PDF article