Small Flying Arts

Rudders and sub-rudders done. I've tack-glued the rudders to the booms. I've decided NOT to bother with the landing gear - I want to first determine the this thing flies and is somewhat survivable. Total weight of all components: 9gm.

Just had to clamp everything together to get an idea of the whole mass of this puppy. For a 19 inch span model, it isn't "small" !

I am a bit concerned about the survivability of the booms as designed...

Tip panels are practically done - just need to add the main LE and shape the TE. The center panel needs just the boom support ribs and a sub-spar. Really pleased that the tip panelsare exactly the same weight at the same construction stage @ 0.85 grams.

Added bonus... everything seems to fit !

Got some more building done. Second boom is completed and the wing center-section. I was quite pleased that the fit of the booms to the wing was very close - requiring little extra trimming. I will have to open up the area where the wing passes thru to compensate for the tissue thickness, but that's...

Photo supporting my last posting . Second boom under construction.

The majority of the fuselage and one boom is done plus the horz. stab. One thing about twin-boomed aircraft is the necessity of building essentially THREE fuselages :| . Weights are, at present, quite reasonable. I've a lot of modifying on the plan to do that would have been obvious had I been even ...

Slow going (as usual for me :| ), but cutting, test fitting, modifying and adjusting takes its toll. A number of the stringer notches as drawn in the rough plan were off quite a bit plus the two height errors on formers 3 and 4. The only notches that I pre-cut were on the nose former (the others wer...

It's really great to see this bunch having a blast every month, Howard! I still haven't (totally) given up trying to coerce some of my "buddies" to have a go, but German stubbornness is nearly impossible to crack ...

Slow work due to too many other projects, but here are two pics. The "issues" with fitting are more to do with poor cutting - on these smaller models, a half millimeter makes a BIG difference! The one fuselage former (F3) was traced from the original hand drawing and I neglected to check t...

Started gluing up one of the booms and the fuselage to check parts fit and found a few areas that need adjustment - a couple of formers are a bit too short. Lot of work in this puppy, but otherwise is shaping up well. Pictures soon.