Project for Harley???? I'm flattered to have someone think I could pull
it off, but I'm weary of doing new designs. Counting the ORCA sloper,
there are already 6 under-utilized scratch-buildable ones being offered
in my website. All the fuselages are simple, but beautiful structures
largely made of balsa and aircraft plywood. Following the well-detailed
instructions, anyone should be able to build them.. Glassing over and
painting make for beautiful finishes that are commonly mistaken to be
molded creations.
The procedures suggested by [EMAIL PROTECTED] below seem viable, but
involve production which is an antithesis to the "do it yourself"
building I encourage and support. The Easy LT/S is easy enough, flies
way better than a 2 meter and is a nice looking bird. After building one
of those, a next step in the learning curve would be to follow up with a
true bagged wing to make it a genuine LT/S. That is a giant leap in
ability to handle hardest launches and get spectacular zooms.
I once contacted a facility about blow molding a pod fuselage and was
startled to be informed that it would be economically infeasible unless
purchase of 10,000 units could be guaranteed.
I guess I'll never understand the prevalent resistance to learning to
build beautiful things from raw materials.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Foam really is the balsa wood of this generation. Doesn't mean we
should give up balsa, but like I said, make kits for intermediates. I
would suggest a 2-meter size for ease of transport and lower costs.
Leading edge and D-Tube all the way back to the wing's high point and
spoiler bays premade from a foam extrusion to make the most critical
part of the hi tech airfoil "goof proof". Followed by a ply and
carbon cloth I-beam spar, then choice of a wood rib aftersection or a
foam one with lightening holes pre-lasered in it. You have the option
of making the after-section of the wing a jedelsky-type wing if you
like, or a fully enclosed wing. You can learn to glass it by pulling a
sock of glass cloth or even an old leg of panty hose over it and
applying resin or odorless CA glues, or just use an iron-on covering.
The idea is to be modular and offer several paths to the same goal,
depending on what the buyer wants to do and pay for. As your talent
grows you can afford to build the wing again better each time.
Fuse would be foam and/or vacformed lexan, vivak or similar
plastic/glass fuselage side halves and a slip-on blow-molded nose
piece on a central ply and carbon cloth keel/crutch/pylon for
stiffness and strength with light weight at lower cost. A top mounted
or short pylon mounted wing seems like a good idea to keep the
fuselage interface less complicated. The central keel/crutch with
integral skid/towhook lets beginners wire up radio components and
pushrods etc. out in the open, even fly it that way for testing, then
seal it up, yet they would still be able to take it apart again for
repairs or upgrades. Kind of Dodgeson in reverse:-) You could offer
upgraded fuse halves in different grades of materials to update the
fuse outside at a later time. The vacformed half shells would be fast
and cheap to make compared to fiberglass, but offer a smoother, more
pro looking exterior finish than foam alone. Would also take model
paints well for a variety of looks.
I envision this as a beginner to intermediate ship. I once tried to
suggest this as a design for a design contest at the Mid-South, but it
was not eligible under their rules at that time. They had written
rules that basically only allowed you to make an imitation Gentle
Lady, all from wood, instead of innovating.
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