A new thread on the realisation a flying boat foamie : a Latécoère 631.

A few data on the model :
- 2 m wing span (78 inches)
- 6 electrical engines
- Like my previous flying boat, will be realize with a sandwich of depron and blue foam with some wood enforcement.

And a picture of the bird (the real one).

i've always liked the flying boats and this one looks excellent.good luck with your build and i will be looking in every chance i get.thnx,

Angel

As many contry, in the late 30' France start the study for large flying boat. The idea was that flying boat would the best plane for transatlantic fly.

In France three planes was design :
Se 200
Latécoère 631
and on from Lioré et Olivier.

The 1940 defeat stop the realisation of the prototype and the first fly of then Laté 631 was in 1942. At this time it was the larger civil plane in the world.

11 laté 631 have been build and it was used by air-france in 1948 for regular fly beteween France and the Martinique.

If you like this plane here is the documentation I found on then Latecoère 631 (all in French sorry) :

- Fana de l'aviation N° 393 to N° 397
- Latécoère "Les avions et hydravion" Docavia

A small 3 views to understand the plane drawing :

I was quit please with my previous sea plane : a Sea Otter. The body was realised with a sandwich of depron and blue foam (yellow foam in fact !) I decided to use the same method on this plane.

First drawing on the foam :

keeping an eye on this one Eric .. good luck ..

That is a very ambitious project - should be very cool. Can't wait to see it.

Well done on the project ! Looks very impressive.

When do you plan finishing it ?

Originally Posted by Patrick Plawner

Well done on the project ! Looks very impressive.

When do you plan finishing it ?

That's the question ! any way it's too cold here for a sea-plane. I hope it should be ready for the first fly test in 2 or 3 month. My personal experience with flying boat : you some time have to swim

There are many other open questions on this plane :
- wing profile (Eppler 205 ? Naca 2415 ?)
- engines (will depend of the plane's weight but the propeller should be small : 6 ou 7 inches) ?

Buy

Whatever time it will take, well done on the spirit and ambition of doing it.
There is surely many things to learn on the way, and it is certainly fun as well.

How do you plan to make the round shape of the plane using EPP ? Did you already did some EPP planes before ? Pictures ?

Originally Posted by Patrick Plawner

How do you plan to make the round shape of the plane using EPP ? Did you already did some EPP planes before ? Pictures ?

I am not going to use EPP, the body will be make of 5 layers :
Depron - foam - depron - foam - depron

It can be easly shape with common tool (hot wire, sand paper ...)

My previous flying boat was already done this way but is much more smaller (1m wing span).

Buy

Looks great. I love these large scale subjects...

I am very impressed !!!
I can only dream of making such work of art.

The first step is to cut the body in yellow foam (60 mm thick) :

The second part is cut in the same way. As the total body length is 1.43 m (56.3 inches) is larger than my foam block, I had to split both half of the body in two parts (fixed together with polyurethane glue).