Caudron GVI, Esc. C575, Scratch-Build In 1/72

[Old Man]

The Caudron GVI is a machine that has fallen through the cracks of aviation

history. Over five hundred were built, equipping upwards of forty escadrilles at

various times from late 1916 through early 1918 on the Western Front, and

continuing in service in the Near East and North Africa for several years after

the Great War ended. Yet the type is so shrouded in obscurity today that

disagreement on even the most basic details of its design can be found among

normally reliable sources, and there is, at least in English language sources,

no solid detailed account of its design and development.

The Caudron brothers' had pioneered multi-motor designs in France, when early in

1915 they enlarged their GIII design and fitted it with two motors, doubling its

horsepower. This resulted in a machine which, however ungainly its appearance,

had a fair turn of speed, and excellent climb, for the summer of 1915. So

quickly did design and technology advance in that period, however, that by the

start of 1916 the GIV was sadly out-moded, and the Caudron brothers were

designing a variety of twin-engined types with an eye towards replacing it, and

filling several combat roles with the Aviation Militaire.

All these designs incorporated standard fuselages, rather than the

'lattice-tail' arrangement of the GIV, but otherwise divided into two broad

lines of development. One line retained the distinctive 'stepped' wing and

warp-control of the earlier Caudrons, and employed two rotary motors; these were

associated with Gaston Caudron, and continued the G designation. The second line

employed a conventional wing structure and air-foil, with ailerons, and employed

two stationary engines; these were associated with Rene Caudron and received an

R designation. Early days for these designs were attended with great

difficulties. The prototype GV crashed, and so did the prototype RIV, the latter

crash killing Gaston Caudron.

While small numbers of the GV were built, the machine was redesigned into the

GVI, being given a shorter fuselage, with an abbreviated nose, and with its 80hp

Le Rhone motors replaced with 110 hp Le Rhones. Though sometimes described as a

three-seat machine (which the GV was), the GVI had a crew of two, with the pilot

seated in the nose and the observer behind the wings. The greater power gave the

machine much better speed than the GIV, but its greater weight gave it a much

higher wing-loading.

[Old Man]

When the GVI went into service, beginning to replace the GIV in several

escadrilles in the closing months of 1916, it displayed some vicious handling

characteristics, leading the commander of Escadrille C11 to denounce it as a

death-trap. Control response was poor, partly owing to the retention of

wing-warping, and the machine was prone to slip into a spin in any sudden or

tight turn. Worse, it was very difficult to bring the GVI out of spin once one

had begun. Enlargening the vertical fin and rudder alleviated the problem to

some degree, but the type never completely recovered from its early reputation

as a man-killer.

Interviewed many years later, an American pilot, Major Littauer, who flew with

Escadrille C74, gave the following opinion: "The G.4 was more satisfactory, even

though it was slower. It was more reliable. You could manouver it at will and

loop it and it would never go onto a spin. It was about as safe as an aircraft

can be, as far as flying performance is concerned. The G.6 was not quite as

versatile and was much more temperamental. I think the G.4 was a better aircraft

for flying purposes, but for combat, the G.6 had more speed and was probably

more effective. In the Caudron G.6 the observer could fire upwards and forward,

back to the right and to the left, using the same machine gun."

The Caudron GVI was largely phased out of service on the Western Front by the

start of 1918, and gone completely by from there by spring of that year. The

type gained a new lease on service life with the formation of several new

escadrilles in North Africa and the Near East during 1918. Here the GVI

soldiered on even after the end of the Great War, on colonial policing duties

mostly, though these on occasion would rise to being properly regarded as war

operations. By the end of 1921, the type had disappeared completely from

service.

This model depicts Caudron GVI.C.A2 5472, of Escadrille C575 at Port Said,

Egypt, in the autumn of 1918. It is a late production machine, with the enlarged

tail surfaces, and finished in a 'five color' camouflage pattern (the pattern

employed is unfortunately conjectural). Escadrille C575 was formed and assembled

in August at Port Said from the personnel of N581, a Nieuport escadrille

repatriated from operations in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution.

[Old Man]

Dubbed "l'Escadrille de Palestine", C575 was the major air component of the

French contribution to the Allied effort against Ottoman forces in the Levant.

The principal French ground force employed was La Legion d'Orient, a formation

of Armenians, containing in its ranks men who had survived the siege of Musa

Dagh (subject of the classic novel by Franz Werfel), as well as other refugees

and members of the Armenian communities of Egypt and Greece and France. These

men fought under the promise France would establish an Armenian Republic in

Cilicia (a region of southeastern Anatolia between the Taurus Mts. and the

Mediterranean, adjoining northern Syria), where in classical days an Armenian

kingdom had existed.

When Gen. Allenby made his final strike north in September, the French

contingent was ranged on the right of his force, and fought creditably in the

hills south of Nablus during the decisive battle of Megiddo. With the removal

from the scene of their common enemy, the Ottoman Turk, amity among the Allies

fell to pieces. The Hashemite Feisal declared his Kingdom in Damascus, under

English patronage, though the area had been ceded to France by an agreement

signed two years earlier, and even sought to extend his sway to Beirut. Friction

during 1919 gave way to open conflict between France in occupation of Lebanon

and Hashemite Syria during 1920.

Escadrille C575, under the name 8th Escadrille, 1st Observation Regiment from

the start of the year, played a prominent role in policing against guerrilla

incursions into Lebanon, and in the drive to Damascus during the summer,

climaxed with the battle of Maysalun Pass in July.

An account of the build can be found on Swanny's Models Forum, here:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1286651662

[HOLMES]

Old Man,

What a BEAUTIFUL, EXQUISITE loking airplane and you did it justice..

STUNNING build and the display base is well thought out too.

The intricate rigging and work that you did is SUPERB and detailed.

I also like reading its history and it is well written too.

THANK you

HOLMES

[toniosky]

Fantastic work

Edited April 30, 2011 by toniosky

[Old Man]

Old Man,

What a BEAUTIFUL, EXQUISITE loking airplane and you did it justice..

STUNNING build and the display base is well thought out too.

The intricate rigging and work that you did is SUPERB and detailed.

I also like reading its history and it is well written too.

THANK you

HOLMES

Thank very much, Sir!

It is a pretty beast, and the five-color camouflage of the French is always a striking and attractive scheme. I wish I could be more sure about the actual pattern; this is based on one picture showing some banding on a port fuselage side of a G6, and a picture showing something of the upper wing of an R11, built about the same time.

The interesting feature of the rigging was how so many of the wires were encased ijn wooden fairings, for which I used .25mm x .5mm strip. Though tedious to prepare, that were pretty easy to apply.

[Old Man]

Fantastic work

Thank you, Sir!

Much appreciated.

[MattC]

Thats rather tasty Old Man, I like it a lot, looks like a strutting and rigging nightmare, a single bay bipe is bad enough for me, let alone a veritable Forth Bridge of it, I applaud your skill and patience!

Inspires me to have a crack at this scratch building lark, although I'm fairly sure my fumble thumbs will make a hash of it!

Matt

[Old Man]

Thats rather tasty Old Man, I like it a lot, looks like a strutting and rigging nightmare, a single bay bipe is bad enough for me, let alone a veritable Forth Bridge of it, I applaud your skill and patience!

Inspires me to have a crack at this scratch building lark, although I'm fairly sure my fumble thumbs will make a hash of it!

Matt

Thank you, Sir!

I would certainly encourage you to take a crack at scratch-building. it is not so difficult as people imagine, and in my view, the nerve to get started counts for more than the skill level at which you start. That was certainly the case with me, and I am painfully aware, after about a dozen of these, of many areas where I could stand great improvement in my craft skills.

If you have not seen this, I would recommend looking at it:

http://www.wwi-n-plastic.com/Book/harry/woodman.html

I do a lot more carving then he likes, often treating plastic like so much wood, but Mr. Woodman was the Master, and you may find lots of good ideas and inspiration in that book.

The struts and rigging were not so difficult, the worst part was getting and keeping all the struts aligned. Several days of fidgeting and study and ocassional slight repositionings were required.

The rigging on the engine nacelles I did after I had assembled them, struts and all, as units, before I attached them to the wings.

Edited May 1, 2011 by Old Man

[MattC]

Fantastic article, thanks for that, looks like an excellent starting point to inwardly digest.

I think I'll have a go at some point, the worst that can happen is that I make a mess of it I suppose!

I'm now trawling for subjects, will have to find a decent source of raw materials. Nothing likely to happen for a while, but the project is put on a mental shelf to be retrieved at some point!

Yakovlev AIR-3 looks like a nice candidate thus far.

Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing your work.

[Old Man]

Fantastic article, thanks for that, looks like an excellent starting point to inwardly digest.

I think I'll have a go at some point, the worst that can happen is that I make a mess of it I suppose!

I'm now trawling for subjects, will have to find a decent source of raw materials. Nothing likely to happen for a while, but the project is put on a mental shelf to be retrieved at some point!

Yakovlev AIR-3 looks like a nice candidate thus far.

Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing your work.

A parasol monoplane looks like a good starting subject, Sir.

I do not know how things are over in the U.K., but here in the U.S. the leading basic suppliers of card and strip in various shapes and sizes are Evergreen and Plastruct. The first has a better range of sheet, the second a better range of strip. I believe in a pinch you can order directly from the companies over the inter-tubes. My local shop carries a wide range of their stuff, along with material from some smaller local suppliers. It is a fortunate accident; they are near a university with a large college of architecture, and the students are required to prepare models of their designs at times in their course-work, though the shop has a very high and regular demand for the stuff....

[MattC]

I can pick up plastruct strip easily enough from a local model railway shop, sheet is a little more tricky as there just aren't many traditional model shops left. Ebay looks like a good bet though, just had a look, and seems like a good range of thicknesses at reasonable prices.

Not sure how I'll do it yet, the airframe isn't an issue per se as its pretty simple shape wise, its the details that might trip me up, exposed engine cylinders et al, but I'll have a think about that and see what happens.

All that remains is to get a decent print out at scale size, I assume I'll need to scale the drawings in Coral draw or similar to make sure they print at the right size.

[Aggressor Supporter]

Great work on this classic sir. Big