Meccano Three-Engine Biplane

This CAD model is my modified version of a Meccano Three-Engine Biplane (Super Model No. 34) from 1928. It’s based on an Armstrong Whitworth “Argosy” Mk1 passenger airliner used by the Imperial Airways London-Paris service in the 1920s and 30s, specifically the G-EBLF “City of Glasgow”, the first Argosy built which entered service in 1926.

Designed and constructed by the British aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, features included a box-shaped fuselage, three engines for redundancy, and a flying range of 500 miles (800 km). They were powered by air-cooled Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engines, each capable of producing 385 hp and together providing a cruising speed of 95 mph (153 km/h).

Only seven Argosy Mk1s were built, with some of them being used on air mail routes to over-seas destinations including India and South Africa. This YouTube video provides an interesting look at the design and history of this unusual aircraft.

The model includes an electric motor located inside the fuselage for driving the three propellers, and a joystick located in the cockpit for operating the ailerons, elevators, and rudders using wires. The actual model is about 36 inches (91 cm) long with a wingspan of about 43 inches (109 cm), or approximately 1/24 scale.