Well, I've been admiring the Starfighter that Iphan built a short time ago and ran out to buy the magazine with his article in it right away. I thought I would try to follow Steve's formula of the 220-250 square inch rule etc. but soon discovered that produced a fuselage that was around eight feet long or some such crazy number! Since I only had around four feet of blue foam left in the garage, I decided to follow the proven DAF method and scale up 120%. He and JMorgan have made some beautiful giant birds over the last few months so I'm going to have a go.

I am totally open to suggestions. I will use JMorgan's blue foam fuse method, depron and carbon strip for the wings and go from there. I will try to build as light as possible but then again I've tried that in the past and it always ends the same way. I'll put a hook in it to bungy the whole three ring circus.

So feel free to chime in. Do I dare scale the wing up ever so slightly? Currently the fuse will be 49" with a 17" wing span. When I started cutting out templates I just had to laugh. No vertical from this guy but I expect lots of roll rate. Would it look stupid to reduce the anhedral? Will a flat plate wing work?

Naysayers are also welcome. This will give one of the opportunity to gloat.

So far I have formed a big giant blue foam cylinder that will soon get some shaping to form a fuse. Depron or vac formed intakes.

Hope I've at least brought some snickers or chuckles....

Jack

Jack that's the F-104 right. Certainly save wt. on the wing, eh! Go for it my man!

DAF

I would keep the anhedral, it's there for a purpose and looks so cool. If I were doing it I would "cheat" a little on the wing. Noone will ever no but you. Flate plate will do great and look right because the 104's wing looks like a flat plate, it was so thin.
I had kicked around a 104 but just haven't had the time.
I do have one suggestion: Toothpicks. For your eyes. So you won't blink while it's rolling, you'll miss it!
Gonna be a great build, can't wait.

J

This should be good.

That's the one, DAF. It makes me laugh when I see how small the wing is. I guess I'm due for a failure though. Think big, and be big, right DAF?

Jack

Thanks, J. That's what I was thinking. Seems by adding an inch in chord and two in span I can get the area into the whole square foot region! I'm stickin' with the anhedral because, you are right, it looks super cool.

I will try to avoid the tempting paint schemes above and go with a natural aluminum finish. I keep telling myself if I can build a two engine Mosquito that came in at 26 oz AUW, i can build a missle under 20 oz with brushless and a lipo pack.

Thanks Cass! You beat me to the F-5 so I got to try to up the ante. And you did that nice moose paint job.

Jack

Toothpicks are good ! You know, Jack, its how you play the game not whether you win or lose........ya right More power to you.

DAF

Toothpicks! I'm on 'em! I've also upped my caffeine intake considerably so I might get this in the air before the Canadian winter rears it's ugly head! And my new radio has me feeling all cocky 'cause I can program stuff. So you see, pride before the fall.

Jack

Now if we can only get him smoking DAF, THEN he will be a building machine!
Pics please......

J

Not much to see yet, J. Just a big cylinder of blue foam. I have access to a giant belt sander (8 feet long...) so I cut two four inch circles, stuck 'em on each end and rolled the two halves until they were round. I've tacked them together as you describe and will hack saw 'em apart once I like the shape. Then it's that nasty Dremel and wire brush nonsense that we both know and love....

Jack

PS Isn't inhaling all that blue foam dust make me a bit like the cool kids who smoke?

Might make you look like a Smurf! You can also use Jerry Hall's method. Put a rasp in a drill press and hollow that way. That's the way I'm doing it anymore but it's still messy.

J

Smurfs! Ahhhhhh!

Didn't you know how they were a crazy attempt to sway America's kids toward Communism. I mean think about it:

"Blue" collar workers unite for the common good.

Those mushroom houses? (Kremlin domes....)

Play the theme backward (Soviet anthem, I swear!)

What colour was Papa Smurf's hat?

Look at these photos man.... I'm telling you we were this close to all eating beet soup....

Jack

Go for it Jack.

Virtually anything will fly - if its either light enough or has enough power - or preferably both

If you do a search on anherdral, some wise fellow once posted a very thorough aeronautical engineering reason d'etre for it. To sum up, definatley keep it as it reduces dutch roll and improves stability.

Always wanted a 104...

Hey, I've got a plan for a foam Starfighter. It was a free download of the net. I'll have alook now and post info about it if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the encouragement, Hepdog! But you've described two of my basic handicaps. Building light (Just can't seem to stop adding paint, pilots, pitot tubes, tip tanks etc.) and having enough power. I think I'll need a new motor since my Himax outrunners are less than stellar for this application and I'm not sure my geared Himax drive will give me the speed I will need. I have a Park 370 in one of my Hornets and I really like it. Maybe one of those guys or a new fancy (and spendy) AXI. Oh I forgot a third problem. I'm cheap!

JasonH, it would be great if you could rustle up some other plans. Maybe it will give me better insight into shaping etc. Thanks!

Jack

PS. Thanks a lot J. Now that Smurf theme is in my brain! Owwww! The horror!