3-Views And Plans References

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Introduction

One of the most frequent questions flightsim modellers ask is where can they find a particular 3-view, or, preferably, scale plane. While a simple Google search may yield the 3-view or plan for a more famous airplane, there are many excellent online resources.

What follows is a collection of reference sources. I do not pretend to have "discovered" them, so if you have a source that is not listed here, please feel free to edit this page to include it.

Typically, there have been three main sources for plans and three views:

On Line - web sites that have plans and 3-views for downloads. Commercial plan sites - These usually cater to modellers, but a plan is a plan, and prices tend to be reasonable. Books and Magazines. - Including scale modelling, flying (r/c, c/l, etc ) modelling, dedicated aviation magazines, and anthology books. Scale modelling magazines will usually have good scale drawings, plus details on colors, etc. Aviation magazines will usually have useful three view line drawings. The anthology books are the best, at least for the quantity of 3-view line drawings and other information you can get..

DISCLAIMER: this listing is by no means a complete and comprehensive listing. This document is directed towards sources of plans and 3-views. There are many other books, sites, and magazines that provide with excellent resources as to colors, camouflage, and other information.

Since my aviation interests tend towards "vintage" civilian and military aircraft so you may find that the sources in this initial listing lean in that direction.

Felix Rodriguez Freeflight Design Shop October 15, 2006


On-Line Resources

Plans

(Scale drawings with additional views and cross sections)

Wings 2.11 - French site, with English summaries. Wings 2.11 is a modelling software, but this site has excellent 3-views. Navigate with the "3-vues" button


Sky Corner Aviation Reference Russian site, but this points to the English language pages.

Thomas Suurland's Blueprints - Aircraft plans and three views. Also vehicles (cars, tanks, APCs, boats) from the Main Menu, use navigation links to "Blueprints". Note that this site also includes the 3-views from Eduardo's Page

The Nieuport Page - with period scale plans of WW1 Nieuports. Also links to period drawings of other WW1 aircraft, engines, etc.

Wherewolf Aircraft Drawings P.1 and Wherewolf Aircraft Drawings P.2 A couple of Russian language pages with good scale plans.

Arsenal - scale drawings page; Mostly modern Russian military aircraft.

Czech Language scale plans and 3-views - If you rummage about the site, you'll also find other good stuff

Fighters of WW2 - Good scale drawings; slow loading site.

Chance Vought line drawings - Historical site with excellent plans of Chance Vought aircraft - from it's early days to the final A-7/F-8 series

Mike's flying scale model pages - links to flying model plans, but some of the plans/drawings are to accurate scale.

dmlivesy-peanut plans flying model plans, but some of the plans/drawings are to accurate scale

The Plane CAD Page - flying model plans, but some of the plans/drawings are to accurate scale

Free Flight Scale Plans by Derek Buckmaster DB Design Bureau Free-flight scale plans of Australian aircraft.


3-Views

These sites mostly have basic top, side, front views.

Eduardos page - I haven't counted them, but there appear to be several hundred, of all types. These three views are repeated in Thomas Suurland's Blueprints site also.

The Blueprints - Reference image database. - Over 2000 Aircraft, and over 14,000 total cars, tanks, ships, etc. - Quantity!! (Onno van Braam split the blueprints off his original site)

Luft '46 Home Page - Dedicated to the German WW2 projects and prototypes - "what might have been"

Fixed-Wing Aircraft Museum - Several hundred 3-views, and information on world aircraft.

All the World's Rotorcraft - Information and 3-views on rotorcraft

Fiddlers Green Paper Models - While this site is a commercial site offering paper card models, their aircraft information/reference includes 3-views.

Charles Bain's Historic Aircraft Page - at Simviation.com.

Russian Aviation Museum - A virtual museum of Russian aircraft, includes 3-views of most aircraft

Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War (in Spanish) - Spanish site, lots of information and most aircraft have 3-views.

Current (US) Naval Aircraft Inventory - US Naval Aircraft 3-views and information

Fly High - (modern military) - Modern military aircraft 3-views and information

Beriev Aircraft Company - 3-views and information

WAR Replicas (Homebuilts) - site of kitbuilt warbird replicas!

Watson Flight Services Ltd. - aircraft, kitplanes, airplanes, zenair, jabiru, avionics - kitbuilts, some 3-views

Welcome to Air Tractor - for the ag-plane buff in you!

SwiftStyle Studios - Thousands of blueprints for different types of vehicles. over a hundred on fighters alone.

The Blue-Prints.com - Many blue prints on various types of vehicles. Sorted alphabetically

RCGroups - Forum post - Airplane & Rotorcraft 3-views, ( > 600).

Commercial Plan Sites

Bob's Aircraft Documentation - The premier site, in my opinion, for plans/drawings. Bob Banka offers both drawings and photo paks. Downloadable catalog. Just browsing the catalog is fun!

James's Morrow Scale Drawings plans directed to the flying scale modeller.


Books & Magazines

Scale Modeling

Scale Aviation Modeller International "SAMI" apart from model reviews, aircraft are profiled in color. Usually, each issue includes a scale drawing

Scale Aircraft Modelling - "SAM" apart from model reviews, aircraft are profiled in color. Usually, each issue includes a scale drawing

Aviation

The Aeroplane Monthly - With their "database" feature, a specific aircraft is highlighted every month, with history, scale drawings, photos.

AIR International - apart from the monthly review of current events in aviaion, frequently they feature in depth feature on current airplanes, including 3-views and cutaways.

AIR Enthusiast - Air International but for the historical enthusiast.


Books

Complete Book of World War 2 Combat Aircraft - Angelucci/Matricardi/Pinto ISBN 0-7607-2873-9

World Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft - from Leonardo da Vinci to the Present Enzo Angelucci, Chartwell Books, Inc. ISBN 0-7858-1389-6

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft - 1914 to the Present, Enzo Angelucci, Chartwell Books, Inc. ISBN 0-7858-1359-4

The Encyclopedia of Modern Warplanes Bill Gunston, Metro Books (2000), ISBN 1-58663-207-8

Flying Colors Wm Green G. Swanborough. Barnes & Noble Reprint 1999; ISBN 0-7607-1136-4

Aircraft Yearbook 3-View Drawings - 936 drawings of American aviation, airships, autogiros, balloons, biplanes, flying boats, gliders, civilian light planes, civilian commercial, military - all with orginal captions. Mail order from J W McDonald PO Box 23, Windom, Kansas 67491 USA - US$35+US$4. shipping (US) + US$8/other.

The Complete Book of Fighters - An illustrated encyclopedia of every fighter built and flown. Wm Green.Gordon Swanborough; Barnes & Nobles Books; 1998. ISBN 0-0707-0904-1

Modern Commercial Aircraft - Endres/Green/Swanborough/Mowinski Salamander Books Ltd. (London) 1998. ISBN 1-84065-022-2

The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft: Barnes & Noble Reprint 1998; ISBN 0-7607-0592-5

Paul Matt Scale Airplane Drawings (2 Volumes) - Available in book or CD from Aviation Heritage. Detailed scale drawings of a wide range of aircraft. Aviation heritage also contains other aviation books.

Squadron/Signal Publications "In Action" and "Walk Around" Series - good source of history, information, photographs and three views.

Jane's "All the World's Aircraft", "Fighting Aircraft of World War I", "Fighting Aircraft of World War 2" - The source for things aviation. "All the World's Aircraft" comes out yearly, it's expensive, but it's the authoritative source. The WW1 and WW2 editions indicated are reprints, in the WW1 case of the 1919 issue of "..World's Aircraft".

Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide - A small, thick softcover book put out by Jane's It is a collection of three-views and sparse information on current aircraft both civil and military

Flugzeugtypen - by Modellsport Verlag GmbH (Baden-Baden), 1999. I bought these two softcover books on a trip to Germany in 2000. I wish I had bought others. Vol.3 contains detailed scale plans of several jet fighters. Vol.4 contains detailed scale plans of several WW2 fighters.