Any body who has a background, however vague, in aeromodeling will have been intrigued to note that the Wicko was designed and built on best aeromodeling practices of the day. The slab sided fuselage, the constant chord wing and tail plane and the use of a two plank spar Clark Y section wing requiring very little jigging during construction. The fuselage sides were constructed on top of each other and using double longerons mating with the top and bottom again ensured a good accurate fit and little or no jig requirements. The whole airframe made much stronger when covered in 1/16" ply. Simple, cheap and quick construction was thus achieved which was reflected in the new sale price. It really is of no significance to the would be modeler to learn that all metal fittings were of welded units with no forgings being used. Again simple.

So it is quite interesting to record few known models of the Wicko in existence as it is a subject begging to be built in the model world. The defunct U.K magazine "Model Aircraft" published a small 'free flight' plan of very light construction and powered by a 1.5 cc inverted diesel in the 1950's. A 1/4 scale line drawing was produced by the owner some seven years ago but no further work was carried out to produce a full set of working drawings. In the mean time thoughts of blocks of foam, balsa or card covered came to mind but without workshop facilities this thought had to be binned!

It is with pleasure and great interest that pictures of a flying model of the Wicko have come to light, the model being the work of Peter Hornby from Yorkshire. Nearly all the information to construct the model was taken from this website. Peter has been working on and off on the model for over a year having been side tracked into building a Keil Kraft Falcon and replacing his lost KK Junior 60 lost, and subsequently returned, after servo failure. Peter does not indicate how he intends to power the model but e-power seems to be the favored option at the moment. Completion and first flight is eagerly awaited."

1. Undercarriage detail and bottom end of lift struts.

2. Tail wheel assembly and steering tiller.

3. Uncovered fuselage side.

4. Nose cowl before air intakes cut for Gipsy Major engine.

5. 3/4 view top of fuselage.

6. Model on builders bench which gives a good idea of the scale

The Wicko Model almost there.........

"These are the latest pictures of Peter Hornby's model which is about 60" span and electric powered and are very good as Peter had no working plans and worked from photos, mostly from this web-site. He had a struggle with the cowling actually scrapping the first attempt.

He has since carried out ground runs of the motor which tore itself loose from the original wooden mount and has now been replaced by a metal mount matched to the motor. Such was the instant torque that an electric motor can produce. We all look forward of reports of the first flight which cannot now be far ahead."

TABLE TOP MODEL

Very nice 'Table top' Wicko model manufactured by Collectors Aircraft Models, which was done from photographs only and a very good effort with limited information. Hence the rather obvious and incorrect dihedral. The full size does not have any inspite of some incorrect drawings in circulation to the contrary.