Centennial of Flight 2003 : Australian Aeromodellers Tribute

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Updated April 8, 2003

W.E. 'Bill' Eunson
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Bill Eunson has had a life long association with aeromodelling in Australia and is a long time friend of the Hearn Brothers.

Back in the 1930s, ex WW1 pilot and later time movie actor Reginald Denny ran a thriving model shop in Los Angeles and designed the Dennyplane range of model aircraft powered by the arguably even more famous Dennymite engines, both of which were popular with Australian aeromodellers.

Photography : John Bird

Over the years Bill has built a number of Denny designs and has written about their charm and virtues. Little did he realise that when he commenced his most recent model a few months ago, a Dennyplane Jr.', (also known as a Denny Junior and Denny Jr.) that a casual remark to the authors of this website would bring him into personal contact with Reginald Denny's two surviving children living in the USA.

W.E. 'Bill' Eunson and his almost completed 'Dennyplane Jr.',

Bill's 'Dennyplane Jr.' is now officially dedicated to Reginald Jr. and Debbie (McBride), will bear their names and be represented as the pilots in the cockpit.

For his aeromodeller 'Centennial of Flight Tribute', Bill proposes to use his model as an aero-tug for an Australian design of the same vintage, an 'Eagle' glider, designed by his old friends the Hearn Brothers.

W.E. 'Bill' Eunson and his almost completed 'Dennyplane Jr.',

On the day of the flight, Monash University's Aerobotics© team has proposed a telephone hookup with the USA so Reginald Jr. and or Debbie can be in direct contact with the flying field and perform a 'real time' 'remote' launch of their father's design as it tows the 'Eagle' glider into Australian skies.

Bill writes...

There were two, maybe three different Dennyplane Jr. designs. They all had six-foot wingspans and radial cowls. I chose the later model with the one-piece wing, which was the more popular model. Dennyplanes were noted for folding their wings in a loop.

The original models used solid sheet tail surfaces which I also changed to the more conventional built-up construction to save weight in the tail section. My model is two-thirds size which builds fairly fast.

The lower longerons tuck in a little tighter at the firewall. This will give the engine installation a small amount of downthrust. The wing and tail group just about fall together once you get all the parts cut out.

In closing - a plan - not a 'Dennyplane Jr.' but, a 'scaled down' (48") version for the less adventurous?? modeller. a 'Lt'l Dennyplane Jr.'

'Lt'l Dennyplane Jr.'

Model Builder, Plan No. 190-OT

A 2650 pixel [900kb] and 8568 pixel [4Mb] images are also available

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