• Building a Nieuport 11 replica •
• Build log •
Once I had produced a bill of materials it was time to start ordering materials.
The timber was ordered from Wicks Aircraft in the U.S.A.
This amounted to over 1760 feet of spruce, cut to 30 different sections and costing some US$1650. All the timber was ordered in 6 foot lengths to ease transportation, but meant that some scarfing would be necessary. It took several months before the order was completed and 10 lengths were delivered short. All the material was of high quality however and so no pieces had to be discarded (I had over-ordered by about 10% to account for unusable pieces).
I ordered the metal and hardware from Aircraft Spruce in the U.S.A.
My first order was for over 1,000 individual items which incredibly they despatched the same day!
Organizing all the bits provided a challenge.
I used storage trays for all the hardware and the timber was kept inside my house in order to maintain a consistent temperature and humidity
The plywood was purchased from Swindon Aircraft Timber Co in the U.K.
All the ply was certified and Tim provided a good service with all the ply well packed and reinforced to prevent damage to the edges.
The aluminium streamline struts came from ULM Technologie in France.
The five 2 metre lengths could be cut to provide the 13 required lengths with just mm spare.
The struts have an internal tube which provides additional strength and aids fabrication by allowing aluminium tubes to be inserted into the ends of the strut.
