Let's build a Vx...

[Swiss1]

What's wrong with "Swiss Cross" carbon Mike
And no jokes about holes in it!

Jeremy and Ben
SCC AAA TT

[Tom]

Hey Tom. I'm going to do something similar: obeche with biased carbon cloth underlay, Graphlite spars caps with criss-cross (not to be confused with "Swiss cross") overlap in the fuselage. Definitely going to need some jigs for those dihedral breaks.

Well damn....... here I thought you might have figured out a less labor intensive way to make those pretty wings!

[yyz]

It's been over a year so it's time to clean shop (literally) and get back to it. Here's a photo I found on the Ventus 3 Facebook page and a few design related images. Airfoil is courtesy of Philip Kolb based on the A-7026 (Ashok Gopalarathnam) section: http://www.rc-network.de/forum/showt...FCgelgrundriss

[yyz]

And a little bit of preliminary fuselage work to get the layup and gelcoat straight. Test layup of the front of the fuselage using a 50/50 mix of West Systems 406 (colloidal silica) and 410 (microlight filler) for the "gelcoat" and three layers of Rutan 9 oz structural cloth with one layer on the bias. Seems more than stiff enough and the outer part sanded well. Onward...

[yyz]

I built a wing like that when I was four or five. Couldn't find long pieces of wood so scabbed together several short pieces. My Grandmother liked it but she liked everything I made.
Thank God for Schleicher.
Regards Dean

Love you Dean (and I'm sure your grandmother too) but I think this wing looks pretty bad ass

[Steve P]

Excellent! Looking forward to this.

Dean's grandma was a class act.

[yyz]

Did the monotonous task of blocking out the foam for the wings today. At least you end up with something that looks like a wing. The templates and foam are 20 mm wider than the final wing will be.

[yyz]

And a couple of shots I just stumbled across of making the mold from Rick Shelby's fuselage.

[yyz]

Tomorrow's task will be cutting up some of Asher's obeche.

[yyz]

Today's effort was centered around cutting wing cores. Michael (SMYK) came to the rescue and laser cut some beautiful templates out of Formica. What a great guy and super knowledgeable. Saved me a BUNCH of time. Thanks again, Mike!

The templates and the Olfa knife Mike recommended.



Rather than mess with registration pins poking in the foam, I use a good dose of 3M 77.



Bottom surface cut first....



... and then the top side.



Say a little prayer and hope for the best.



All trimmed up with a fresh Xacto knife.


Repeat over and over again. Shop supervisor clearly pleased with the results.

[ARUP]

Thank goodness for great supervisors! Looks good!

[Swiss1]

Nice Mike.
Can I place my order now

Jeremy and Ben
SCCAAA TT TN

[yyz]

Some more photos of the full-sized ship.

[French1]

Stop teasing or I will build one too!

Stéphane

[yyz]

Stop teasing or I will build one too!

Stéphane

Rumor has it..... (please don't sue me Adele). And no teasing, you're getting the full meal deal as it happens!