Once one of 130 British fighter planes, the Red Devil is the only surviving Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout. On Whidbey Island, a model of the World War I plane will be ready to take flight after some modifications.

When he’s not out photographing assignments for the South Whidbey Record, David Welton enjoys building remote control airplanes, which he flies with a group of friends every Sunday morning at the South Whidbey Sports Complex soccer fields.

Nearly five years ago, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Welton constructed the Red Devil replica from a kit. The angle of the tail surface was incorrect, however, and it proved difficult to fly or to rebuild.

A friend of Welton’s and a natural-born tinkerer, fellow South Whidbey resident and veteran Jim Cowperthwaite spent the winter rebuilding the 1/6 scale model of the 1916 monoplane.

“Basically, I took it down to the bones and started over,” Cowperthwaite said.

Some of the changes he made included removing the MonoKote covering and replacing it with Oratex fabric, 3D-printing new wheels and tires, correcting the angle of the tail section, improving the landing gear and adding a sensor that will send a warning when the plane is in danger of stalling.

“I had some disagreements over the design of the kit, and I actually emailed the company that made it. I never heard back,” Cowperthwaite said with a laugh.

Other authentic additions include a sound system that makes plane noises and an engine that Cowperthwaite said is a good representation of the motor that would have originally been in the Bristol M.1. It sounds like an “old dinosaur” when it roars to life, he said, and draws everyone’s attention.

Currently, he’s working on getting more power to the model monoplane so it can fly again soon. A test flight earlier this month was not as successful as hoped.

Cowperthwaite is the repair guy in his group of friends, often taking in donated airplanes for those who don’t have enough room in their hangars and fixing them up.

“Models are real airplanes,” Welton said. “He did a fantastic job.”

Previously Cowperthwaite worked as a mechanic and first line supervisor for Boeing, where he was involved in helping to start new programs. Around 2000, he sought a quieter life with the advent of an organic farm on Whidbey Island. He sold produce and added a herd of goats to his land.

“Who, by the way, don’t appreciate airplanes flying overhead,” Cowperthwaite quipped.

While selling his wares at the local farmers markets, customers discovered his mechanical gifts and began leaving lawn mowers and cars in his front yard to repair. He started a fix-it business for a number of years before deciding to officially retire in 2015.

Cowperthwaite has been building and flying model airplanes since they were powered by gas engines.

“The electric is so much cleaner and easier,” he said.

While rebuilding the Red Devil, he learned more about the history of the real-life plane, which was flown by Captain Harry Butler, an Australian aviator, captain and chief fight instructor in the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Tragically, Butler died only a few years after the end of the Great War likely due to complications from a previous plane crash. The Red Devil, the last plane of its kind, currently resides at the Harry Butler Memorial in Minlaton, South Australia.

“It wasn’t a success, because at the time single-wing airplanes, pilots were leery of them,” Cowperthwaite said of the Bristol M.1. “They didn’t have the material strength that they do today.”

It was also a very fast airplane; fields were too small for it because it required a long runway.

“Which gives me a little bit of concern when I try to fly it,” Cowperthwaite said. “You never want to go faster than your guardian angel can fly.”

His favorite model planes come from the World War I era. He admires the chivalry, the engineering, the daring of those pilots, who were flying a relatively new invention at the time. Other models he treasures include the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, which he 3D-printed entirely, and the Beech D-18, which he sat in the real version once and fired up.

Cowperthwaite has 20 hours of experience flying actual planes. One time, while in the cockpit of a Cessna, he steered the plane sharply towards an approaching Goodyear Blimp.

“I was born at the wrong time,” he said with a laugh.

While in the Navy, Cowperthwaite worked mainly on boats as a marine engineer, including a stint in a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam. He liked to fish out there, and one time, narrowly dodged a projectile.

“I heard the bullet ricochet off the boat,” he said. “I’m sure some guys on the shore got a good laugh when they saw me duck and run.”

In lieu of a college education, he traveled the globe, even visiting the home country of Butler, the Red Devil’s pilot.

When people thank him for his service, his first instinct is to thank the service for providing him with so many opportunities to see the world.

(Photo by Georgia Edwards) David Welton with the Red Devil, a 1/6 scale model of a 1916 Bristol M-1C, in 2020.

(Photo by David Welton) The Red Devil in action, before being rebuilt by Jim Cowperthwaite.

(Photo by David Welton) The Red Devil in action, before being rebuilt by Jim Cowperthwaite.