Great to see this project finally out in the open Nick! The only thing better than the De-tox is the Re-tox! Now cut 'er round and git 'r done.

Sam.

I really like the looks of this one. Shall I check-in in 2010 or 2011 for a progress report? And how is cat hair going to be incorporated? For strength or esthetics?

Pete
Jerk. But a proud jerk!

I like that one Nick! Nice drawing too. What did you use to create the rendering?

I wish Nick would get out the color pencils.

Aye: Slopetrash is right: I was kidding about the M60. All in good jest. any two planks are going to look rather similar in layout... it's the construction and flight characteristics that set them apart.

Yogi: 3 pieces. The tail fin will be moulded in to the Fus. I don't want a fish-poo aerial either, So I'll be experimenting with getting an aerial into the airframe.. tough when it's all carbon.... So I think the tail fin may well end up as fibreglass so as not to impeded the signals from an aerial embedded into it.

Also.. While I don't have aims of massive financial gain from this, In order to be bothered to make these there has to be some sort of incentive - I'm an intrinsicly lazy person. I'll be looking to the more seasoned and experienced modellers for advice in this area if I decide to sell them.

Pete: I'll include cat hair if someone requires it. though judging by the damned moggy we're looking after, Cat hair moves faster by itself (when chasing a laser)

SlopeIron. How was it rendered? Very interesting question, and you're not alone in asking it. The Wing layout up to the root is (I believe) from X-Foil. It's the work of Peter Wick. The Fuselage is a free-hand pencil-sketch done on paper, and with the magic of a Photocopier and Camera, stuffed between the wing panels. .. REAL rendering will be coming along before too long

Pencils Sam.. For why?

Originally Posted by Sensiblenick

Pencils Sam.. For why?

Dunno. Thought it might look good with a splash of color or something superbad?

After plotting a spline through the initial LE points and plotting a graph of it's directional change along it, you can see the peaks caused by slight misalignment of the profiles.

A few tweaks later (0.5mm here, 0.8mm there etc) and the curve is smooth.

Overlay them and you can JUST see the difference.. Maybe it wouldn't have been noticeable, but we'd have known it was there if we didn't tweak it

Dude, if you can sand down to 0.5mm accurately across the whole wing, I'll buy you a..............something big!!

Steve
oh and what did you use to plot it with?

ProEngineer

Sand? these moulds are going to be machined!

Oh, righto I'd better learn to read then

Do you think that the cnc will be perfect enough not to need a fine and very time consuming finishing made from sandpaper and elbow grease?

BTW, may i ask why will the molds will be made from aluminium?
Is it cheap?
Light?
Needed for prepeg wingskins?
Or it's just you'ra after a bling looking molds?

So many questions.... and more to come!

I'm quite sure I'll need to polish the hell out of the moulds.. and spend much time with elbow grease...

Aluminium: Because I have lots of scrap aluminium to work with... That's it really...

Well, Jonas and I have now found time to get ourselves together and discuss mould making. We've now got it sorted. Pictures to follow sometime...

I've now cut the matieral that the moulds will be machined from. A lot of time on the bandsaw has yeilded a decent pile of aluminium powder and four slabs measuring 20x225x585mm

Bits that need thought
At the fattest point that the servo could be fitted into the wing, I have precious little room. A 30x30mm servo box has a corner that gives only 9mm between outer surfaces of the wing. It rather looks as though there's no room in the wings for the servos. Even the belovéd HS 55's are too fat.

At the thickest area of the Elevons, the Elevon is 3mm thick. I may be able to shove a torque-rod in there and put the servos inside the fus leaving lots of scope for many different servo installations and room for balast tubes in the wing roots.

Right now I'm not to interested in squezing RDS in there as the wing will STILL be too thin for a servo... the fun never stops.

At least this means that there'll be no obvious servo-horn outputs on the wing... I was worried abot those messing up the sufaces and adding unwanted drag.

I think I've got it sorted.. but I'm not 100% sure at the moment.



How come there are so few entries this year? has everyone los the will to have a laugh?

Awesome Nick. Did you consider the Reton Laser to cut that yum yum? It would have been much faster.

It seems your wing design must then be current. It seems all the modern wing designs are thin, and push the thickness of servo size down and down. The only sensible alternate to make the plane bigger and bigger!

Maybe you can lay up a custom carbon short torque rod?

Dymond D60's are 9mm thick. D4.7 are 8mm.

Forget RDS....

/Adam