Scratchbuilt 1/72 Parnall Peto
Submarine Aircraft
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Introduction
I first came across the Parnall Peto observation aircraft in a Blanford
publication, Submarines in Colour. In the section on early British submarines
there was an illustration of the M-2 carrying a small seaplane. It showed
that the aeroplane was housed in a watertight hanger set in front of the
conning tower. This piqued my interest and when I looked up the Peto on
the internet I found quite a bit of information, good photos and even
a Youtube film clip of the aircraft being loaded onto the submarine’s
catapult and launched.
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However the one thing I really needed was missing, namely drawings.
I did have a good profile of the aircraft and its measurements. So I scaled
the profile out to 1/72 and made my own plans. They may not be 100% but
I feel the resulting model to be a pretty good replica of an unusual aircraft.
Even though the Peto was stored on a submarine it was not especially small
having a wingspan of 28 feet and 22 feet in length. It did have folding
wings and a pair of floats which enabled it to be squeezed into the hanger.
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Once I started to to build my model it occurred to me that it might
be interesting to mount the Peto with it’s own hanger, crane and
catapult. I had plenty of photographic material to base it on. Only a
small number of the Parnall Petos were produced and the experiment ended
in the tragic sinking of the M-2 , its aircraft and all hands in January
1932. It is believed that failure of the rear hydroplanes caused the submarine
to submerge with the hanger door open during an aircraft launch drill.
Peto by the way is Latin for seeker, an apt name for a scout plane.
CONSTRUCTION
I started construction with the fuselage. As the Peto was a standard
looking biplane I made it with slab sides and formers. I plunge formed
the top deck over a carved wooden plug. After cleaning it up I attached
it to the fuselage and cut out the cockpits. I converted an Aeroclub 9
cylinder Wright Whirlwind into an Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose IIIc five
cylinder engine and mounted it on the nose.
The wings were made out of 40 thou sheet plastic using a Harry Woodman
jig to create an airfoil. I made the W-truss wing struts out of flattened
soft flower arranging wire. Once the wing cell was complete I attached
it to the fuselage.
I then carved a mould out of soft wood in the shape of the top of the
floats. I plunge formed two float halves and then added the keels to the
under surfaces. When all was cleaned up the floats were attached to the
airframe. The entire model was then spray painted with silver and details
added.
With the Peto completed I started work on the hanger and catapult. I
decide to display the model on a sea base at water level. I commenced
by cutting up a styrene ice cream tub. By gluing two sections together
I had the basic shape of the hanger. I glued a large piece of 15 thou
sheet plastic over the top of the hanger part to form the roof. The front
was then cut out for the hanger opening. Once all was dry the seams were
filled and sanded down smoothly to make it appear as one piece. Next I
cut three circles of 15 thou sheet and sandwiched small strips of corrugated
sheet between them to simulate the gears of the crane. The crane boom
was made up of a of 15 thou sheet to look like a metal joist. A box of
15 thou sheet was attached to the gears and the boom attached to it. When
all was dry this unit was glued to the top of the hanger.
I used two sheets of ice cream tub lid material to form the deck of
the submarine. To this I added a sheet of corrugated sheet to simulate
the top surface of the deck. A section of the catapult was made up of
strips of 15 thou sheet and then glued to the deck. I added details to
the deck such as handholds, safety railings and navigation lights. All
this was based on photographs and cannot be 100% accurate but once completed
it does look the part. I sprayed the entire hanger and deck dark sea grey.
When dry, I weathered the model with Tamiya smoke and a wash made up of
burnt sienna and lamp black oil paints. This was then finished with a
coat of Future/Klear and Tamiya flat base.
The base was made of a small piece of chip board. I glued the deck to
it and then made a sea out of standard plaster of Paris. When it was dry
the plaster was given a rough brushing of blue poster paint. As it dried
further greys and blacks were added to give the surface a cold rough sea
appearance as photos of the M-2 submarine and Peto aeroplane show. To
complete the display I added a few Airfix figures appropriately painted
to represent the crew recovering the Parnall Peto observation plane after
a flight.
CONCLUSION
After all is said and done, I’m quite pleased with the way my
diorama of a little known chapter of aviation history has turned out.
Although the idea of storing and launching an aircraft from a submarine
was a dead end, it probably kept the concept of having airborne weapons
aboard submarines alive which resulted in the Tridents of today.
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