After two foamies I decided my third plane should be completely my own work.
I started the design of the plane in the film by drawing what I reckon a powered glider should look like. I don't know the first thing about aerodynamics and don't have any 3D cad software, I just drew what I thought looked good. The only thing I copied from an original was the airfoil, taking a guess at what would be appropriate. No way I'd be able to guess the best value for angle of attack, so I used a slab taiplane so I could sort it out in flight.
I made up most of the details as I went along. It seemed to be evolving very nose heavy, so I moved 2 servos into the tail. I made the hinges from sheet metal cut from a biscuit tin soldered to brass tubing I had lying around in the cellar. The carbon fibre rods came from a kite I crashed decades ago and the motor, esc and a couple of servos were salvaged from the remains of my first plane. The fuselage was made of newspaper and wallpaper paste strengthened with bandaging gauze. Seemed like a good idea at the time, nice and light, but not something I'll use again. During the whole construction process I was wondering how much it would weigh. 196 cm span, will it weigh more than a kilogram? In the end it was 1024 g.
Some will say it would have been simpler to buy a plane, but I enjoyed this project almost as much as I enjoy flying. All a matter of taste.
...Continue Reading