The Sands Fokker Dr.1 Triplane is an American
homebuilt aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...
that was designed by
Ron Sands Sr of
Mertztown, Pennsylvania, and produced by
Wicks Aircraft and Motorsports. It is a full-sized replica
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
based upon the 1917-vintage
Fokker Dr.1. The aircraft is supplied as a kit and in the form of plans for amateur construction.
[Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 249. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. ]
Design and development
The aircraft features a
strut-braced
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...
triplane
A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are.
Design principles
The triplane arrangement may ...
layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed
conventional landing gear
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
, and a single engine in
tractor configuration.
The Sands Fokker Dr.1 Triplane is made from welded steel tubing and wood, with its flying surfaces covered in
doped aircraft fabric. The cockpit width is . The acceptable power range is and the standard engines used are the
Lycoming O-320, the
Lycoming O-360, the
Le Rhône 9J rotary engine or the
Warner Scarab
The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial aircraft engine, that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit, Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designated R-420.
Vari ...
radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...
powerplant.
The Le Rhône 9J was the direct basis for the Oberursel Ur.II 110 PS German ''umlaufmotor'' rotary that powered production Dr.Is in 1917–18.
The aircraft has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot and baggage is .
The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a engine is and the landing roll is .
The designer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 3,000 hours.
Operational history
By 1998 the company reported that 100 sets of plans had been sold and 15 aircraft were completed and flying.
Specifications (Sands Fokker Dr.1 Triplane)
References
External links
*
Official photo gallery{{Sands aircraft
Fokker Dr.1 Triplane
1990s United States sport aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Triplanes
Homebuilt aircraft
Replica aircraft