When building any sort of large object, whether it be a boat, a house, a bridge or an aircraft, serious thought needs to be given to the order of procedure. Without this sort of planning, it’s easy to waste time in undoing/re-doing work, mismanaging lead times on difficult to obtain items or incurring costs from expensive services being delayed. A lot of thought and pencil work has recently gone in to the Panther Project to ensure that all the parts can be assembled and erected in the correct time without having bits of the supporting jig structure in the way or risking the possibility of access issues for later in the build.
How-to information regarding wooden airframe construction of this vintage is hard to find and tends to refer to the earlier “strut and tie” type construction that most people associate with aircraft of this era, e.g. the Sopwith Camel. The internet has offered help in this matter – particularly in access to digitally scanned books that have long since gone out of print. Assistance is also to be found in a couple of the pieces of Admiralty technical documentation that we have relating to the Panther; The Handbook on the Panther Ship Aeroplane, which contains descriptions of the construction methods, and The Parnall Panther Ship Aeroplane Rigging Notes, which details how the aircraft was to be rigged, i.e. set up for flight.
