The de Schelde Scheldemusch was a single seat pusher biplane

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

 designed in Holland

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to be easy and safe to fly. It was one of the first light aircraft to use a tricycle undercarriage

Tricycle gear

Tricycle gear describes an aircraft undercarriage, or landing gear, arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one wheel in the front, called the nose wheel, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity...

. Despite a sales campaign in the UK, only six were built, one being briefly tested by the RAF. A single example of a flying boat

Flying boat

A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

 version, one of the smallest of this class, was also built.

Design and development

In 1935 the Dutch dockyard NV Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde, based at Vlissingen (Flushing

Flushing, Netherlands

Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...

) on the Schelde (Scheldt

Scheldt

The Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...

) estuary moved into aircraft manufacture with the acquisition of the staff of the Pander

Pander

Pander may refer to:* Derek Pander, a fictional comedy character* Pander , the facilitation or provision of a prostitute in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer...

 Company. Under their designer Theodor E. Slot, de Schelde produced several different aircraft, the second of which was the Scheldemusch. In pre-war Dutch "musch" translated to English as "sparrow", though modern Dutch would use "mus" and the name sometimes appears as Sheldemus. It was also sometimes anglicized to Scheldt Sparrow. The unconventional appearance of the pusher biplane Scheldemusch, with its then novel tricycle undercarriage, was the result of the intention to produce a novice's aircraft, easy and forgiving to fly and to land.

The Scheldemusch was a single bay biplane with staggered wings of equal span and equal, constant chord. They were built from twin wooden spars, plywood covered in the vulnerable regions of the leading edge and the underside between the N form interplane struts. The remaining areas were fabric covered. Both wings had pronounced dihedral; the upper one carried ailerons and leading edge Handley Page slots

Leading edge slot

A leading edge slot is an aerodynamic feature of the wing of some aircraft to reduce the stall speed and promote good low-speed handling qualities. A leading edge slot is a span-wise gap in each wing, allowing air to flow from below the wing to its upper surface...

.

There was no fuselage in the conventional sense, rather a nacelle for pilot and engine and a number of rearward booms to carry the tail. The nacelle was flat sided and just wide enough to accommodate the pilot, who sat under flexible glazing below the leading edge of the upper wing. It was a steel framed, fabric covered structure. The nose of the aircraft was easily removable to give access to the rear of the instrument panel. Behind the pilot was a small baggage hold, externally accessed and the 40 hp (30 kW) Praga B2

Praga B2

|-See also:...

 two cylinder engine was at the rear of the nacelle, driving a two bladed pusher propeller with its boss only just below the upper wing. Two horizontal steel booms converged from that wing, just inboard of the interplane struts to the tips of the tailplane. Three more beams spread out from the base of the nacelle upwards, the outer pair joining those from the upper wing forming the tailplane extremities and the central one supporting the rudder and inner tailplane. Thus the tailplane had angular tips and a straight leading edge, and the elevators had a triangular cut out for rudder movement. Because of the short length of these booms the fin and rudder, both of which extended above and below the tailplane had to be generous in area. The tail surfaces were fabric covered over a wooden structure. The main undercarriage was mounted on splayed, sprung and faired legs attached to the rear of the nacelle plus vertical long stroke shock absorbers. The stearable nosewheel had the same diameter as the main wheels.

The first prototype, registered PH-ALB, first flew in November 1935. In all, six were built over the next two years but despite good reviews the hoped for sales did not happen. de Schelte sold licence build rights in the UK to Aircraft
Constructions Ltd of Sidcup

Sidcup

Sidcup is a district in South East London in the London Borough of Bexley and small parts of the district in the London Borough of Greenwich.Located south east of Charing Cross, Sidcup is bordered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bromley and Kent County Council, and whilst now part of...

, but demonstrator PH-AM was lost in a crash whilst demonstrating at Gravesend

Gravesend, Kent

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...

 at the start of a sales tour in March 1937. One other Scheldemusch was lost in an accident in 1937 and three more were destroyed during the occupation of Holland by Germany in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The only Scheldemusch to survive the war was PH-AMG, which had gone to England as a replacement demonstrator. It was briefly considered by the RAF, appearing with both roundels and its Dutch civil registration. At the end of the war it was advertised for sale at £235 and there were reports that it survived until 1960, but there is no evidence that it flew in that time.

The Scheldemeeuw variants

Not long after building the Scheldemusch prototype, de Schelde also brought out a flying boat version called the Sheldemeeuw (meeuw = gull). Wings, empennage and much of the rest of the aircraft was the same as the Scheldemusch. The fuselage was necessarily different, with the nacelle replaced with a wooden structured and plywood skinned single step hull which extended rearwards almost to the tail. The longer fuselage made the attachment of the tail rather easier, three steel wires replacing the lower triplet of booms. The engine mounting and pilot's cockpit were little changed, though the flexible glazing was replaced with flat upright and more robust glass panels There were small floats fixed directly onto the underside of the lower wings for stability on water. Performance was similar to that of the Scheldemusch.

This, too failed to sell and in 1938 the sole example PH-ALK was fitted with a new, metal hull and re-registered as PH-ATM. This was done to provide de Schelde with experience in building metal hull, as they were tooling up to licence build the Dornier Do.24K

Dornier Do 24

-See also:-References:* -External links:* * * * * * * * *...

 for the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service.

Specifications (Scheldemusch)