Göppingen Gö 9 by AML
1/72 scale
Kit No. 72024
Retail: $15.00
Decals: One version
Comments: Engraved panel lines, resin detail parts, vacuform canopy
History
The Göppingen Gö 9 was a one-off prototype commissioned by the Dornier-Werke and constructed by Schempp-Hirth. The purpose of the prototype was to test the idea of an airplane with a mid-fuselage engine driving a pusher propeller in the tail, and turned by a long driveshaft. Göppingen Gö 9 was a proof-of-concept development aircraft that led directly to the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil (Arrow). The aircraft first flew in 1941 and was generally considered a success. Interestingly, the aerodynamic design of the airframe was based on that of the Dornier Do 17 bomber.
Origins
In 1937, Claude Dornier observed that adding extra engines and propellers to an aircraft in an attempt to increase speed would also attract a penalty of greater drag, especially when placing two or more engines within nacelles mounted on the wings. He reasoned that this penalty could be minimized by mounting a second propeller at the rear of an aircraft. To prevent tail-heaviness, however, the engine would need to be mounted far ahead of it. Dornier patented this idea and commissioned a test plane to evaluate it.
The aircraft was designed by Dr Ulrich Hütter as a 40% sized, scaled-down version of the Dornier Do 17’s fuselage and wing panels without the twin-engine nacelles, and built by Schempp-Hirth. The airframe was built entirely of wood and used a retractable tricycle landing gear – one of the earliest non-Heinkel-built German airframe designs to use such an arrangement.
Basically, the Göppingen Gö 9 was virtually identical to the Dornier Do 17, except the dimensions were reduced by 1:2.5. The fuselage was cylindrical, with the wings being mounted mid-fuselage. The pilot sat in a cockpit located in the front of the aircraft, and the nose was glassed in. One advanced feature for this small testbed was a fully retractable tricycle landing gear system.
Power was supplied by a Hirth HM 60 inverted, air-cooled inline four-cylinder engine mounted just behind the cockpit within the fuselage near the wings. A long extension shaft ran the length of the rear fuselage and drove the four-bladed pusher propeller. Other than the engine installation, the only other unusual feature of the aircraft was its all-new, full four-surface cruciform tail, which included a large ventral fin/rudder unit of equal area to the dorsal tail. This fin incorporated a small supplementary tailwheel protruding from the ventral fin’s lower tip that assisted in keeping the rear-mounted, four-blade propeller away from tailstrike damage against the ground during take-off and landing. The Gö 9 carried the civil registration D-EBYW.
After a series of unpowered, glider flights in which the aircraft was towed aloft in early 1940, powered test flights reportedly began in 1941. The performance of the Gö 9 design validated Dornier’s ideas, and he went ahead with his plan to build a high-performance aircraft with propellers at the front and rear, producing the Dornier Do 335. The eventual fate of the Gö 9 is unknown.
Specifications (Gö 9)
Crew: 1
Length: 6.80 m (22 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 7.20 m (23 ft 7 in)
Gross weight: 720 kg (1,587 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Hirth HM 60 4-cyl. inverted air-cooled in-line piston engine, 60 kW (80 hp)
Propellers: 4-bladed pusher propeller turned via an extension shaft
Performance
Maximum speed: 220 km/h (140 mph, 120 kn)
The Kit
First released by AML in 2004, the Göppingen Gö 9 is injection molded in dark olive plastic and consists of 27 parts, plus five resin detail parts including the pilot’s seat and control yoke, with two vacuform canopies. The kit features engraved panel lines, and even factoring in that the plane it represents was supposed to be a scaled-down version of the Dornier Do17, it still seems a bit small for 1/72 scale.
There are resin detail parts for the tiny cockpit in the form of the pilot’s seat and control yoke. The part for the main instrument panel is so small it may be easy to overlook; it bears no detail and there is no decal provided. Modelers will have to pay close attention to fit throughout construction, as with any kit that is devoid of locator pins. The landing gear have rather soft detail, particularly in the case of the nose wheel.
There is a resin pitot tube (a first, in this modeler’s experience) and a resin airscrew for the pusher propeller in the rear of the aircraft. Individual Injection molded plastic propeller blades are to be cemented to the airscrew. The vacuform canopy fortunately bears scribing to facilitate the painting of the canopy framing, but it may be better to cover the framing with some kind of kabuki tape and paint the tape, given the thinness of the canopy frame lines.
Surprisingly, there is raised detail to be found on both the cockpit floor and the main landing gear door interiors. Just as surprisingly, all landing gear wheels, which are so small they would all be rather fiddly even if they were each a single part, have been divided into two halves that will have to be cemented together. Modelers should be advised that these are likely the most easily lost parts of the kit, particularly the tiny nose wheel halves.
Markings
The kit includes a single set of markings, call letters D – EBYW, painted in a scheme of overall Cream RLM 05 (which may possibly be duplicated using Gunze Sangyo Sail Color, should RLM 05 be difficult to obtain). Although markings are provided for a single aircraft, there are two versions of it. One of them has the glazing over the nose overpainted with the same RLM 05 as the rest of the airframe; the other has the glazing painted over in Black to match the color of the canopy framing. The markings are crisply done with realistic color and no bleeding; the swastika markings consist of two parts.
Conclusion
This is a diminutive little kit (fully assembled it will be about 4″ x 4″), so much so that it is hard to believe it is 1/72 scale, but it should built up into a reasonably detailed if rather tiny aircraft that may look more akin to 1/100 scale when finished. Highly recommended for all those interested in experimental aircraft.
References
- https://www.somanyaircraft.com/models/projects/2022/go9/
- www.wikipedia.org
- www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com
- www.luft46.com