Summary

Plan for biplane design drawn by John R. Duigan in preparation to construct the aircrraft which he first flew on the family property 'Spring Plains' at Mia Mia, near Heathcote, central Victoria, in July 1910.

The drawing shows a side elevation on the top half of the sheet and a plan of the aircraft below, drawn to a scale of 1 inch = 3 feet (1:36). The aircraft depicted is a single-propeller pusher type biplane with a four-cylinder vertical in-line engine on the left of centre over the main wings. The aircraft has a 12 feet x 2½ feet (3660 mm x 760 mm) forward elevator and twin12 feet x 3 feet (3660 mm x 915 mm) rear tailplains above and below a movable vertical rudder. It has twin main wheels mounted on pivoting arms with shock-absorbers under the main wing and a single fixed tail wheel under the tailplain. The aircraft is shown with an overall length of 29½ feet (8990 mm) and a wingspan of 20 feet (6100 mm). Several details including the overall dimensions differ from John Duigan's final prototype, however, the drawing appears to most closely match the inital prototype, with dihedral (or upward tilting) wing extansions, that Duigan first flew in July 1910.

Physical Description

Drawn in grey-lead pencil on buff coloured sheet of card cut from a manilla folder. There is a scale drawn in the top left-hand corner.

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