new flying wing anyone?

[thermaled]

Thanks for the information. No problem with carbon tows around the wing seat, presume the fuse will need a big hole there for access so a bit of added strength has to be a good idea.

Cheers
          Mark

[stevext]

Info needed please folks........

Here's the proposed fin template, slightly different in that it's raked forward slightly for two reasons.

1) looks slightly unusual !

2) with the split fin braking the forward raked hinge line should hopefully give a slight pitch down when the brakes are applied.

The fins approx 250mm high, 195mm at the base and 55mm at the tip will it be big enough for a 48" wing ( or the 60" ) ??.

Cheers


Stevext

[thermaled]

Looks rather over sized to me, on my 60" plank which has is 205mm root  and a tip of120mm,  the fin is 110mm base and 220mm high, swept back elliptical shape. When I am dsing, even in smooth air the plane tends to tuck into the hill on the top turn, the faster I go the more pronounced it gets which is not good, its not an aileron differential thing as at speed in smooth air I can punch out to a dot in the sky with no roll and do several laps without touching the ailerons, except on the top turn where I need to add opposite aileron to stop me flying into the hill. I have put this down to an over sized fin generating lift in the turn and yawing the nose into the hill. For general sport flying it is not noticeable, only when the speed gets up in dsing is it apparent, so my opinion would be that as you want to ds it, make it a much smaller fin, especially for a 48" span plank.

Mark
 

[stevext]

Evening All

Mark - Thanks mate, much appreciated, i'll try reducing it's size a bit.

Cheers

[stevext]

Evening

Frekote sealer being applied now, thought i'd post a picture of the mould clamping arrangement. There's only 3 clamps at the moment but i plan on using 5 to make sure that it stays together when under pressure, 50mm x 6mm aluminium flat bar joined with M8 bolts should stop any flexing!. The cloth templates are done using the masking tape method so it's just the release coat's to go on before the first pull.

Cheers

[stevext]

Hi

Hopefully i'll lay up the first fuselage tonight using a road bike inner tube (700c/28) as a bladder, i tried many times to get a thin plastic bladder air tight but with little success so thought i'd try the inner tube and it held 36psi overnight. I'll post a few pics later on how it goes.

Pic below of bladder in mould.........

Cheers

[stevext]

News at last......

Good and bad i'm afraid.

The Bad - the mould suffered some gel coat damage around the flange edge but repairable with not too much work.
The bladder burst but my fault for upping the pressure to 46psi, i'll secure the valve end better next time too as i think a sharp tie wrap end pierced it.
The inner layer of cloth then de-laminated from the rest in places but the other ply's stayed in place ok.

The Good - The part is usable with a bit of filling.
                  The templates were perfect.
                  Bladder conformed to the shape exactly with no voids.
                  Moulding is usable but overbuilt for strength.
layup - 1x80g, 1x 600g at 45deg, 1x600 at 0-90, 1x600 at 45deg plus a doubler from the mid-wing seat forward plus carbon tows around the seating.

This should have been yours Mark at 280g weight.

I'll do another one next weekend once the mould is repaired. Pics below.....

[stevext]

Few more.........

[olivers dad]

keep plugging away there Steve. practice makes perfect (see what i did there)

               Nick

[stevext]

Oh dear 

Mould damage filled, just waiting for the epoxy to cure and then i'll wet and dry it to shape.

Cheers

[thermaled]

Looks good Steve, shame about loosing a mould edge though. I dont mind applying some filler as long as there is plenty of structural strength there.

Mark

[stevext]

Hi All

Just finished laying up one of my dlg pod moulds for a trial run using the pw98 mod section as it 's got a slip on nose for easy access, i didn't have time to make the bladder for the larger fuse this week so thought i'd give this a go. 2x biaxial 600g lays plus a couple of carbon tows around the wing seating should make it fairly tough and one of the early experimental nosecones of kevlar/carbon should do it!.

I used one of the qualtex balloons and it seems fairly tough but i've got it at 20psi at the moment and will probably leave it there, hopefully it'll last the night and whatever the result i'll post the pics tomorrow...........

Cheers

Stevext

[stevext]

Hi
Well the first balloon decided to pop so i popped in a spare and held it at 15 psi instead which worked ok, i did a nosecone the following night again at 15 psi with no problems. The mould is Thermaled's dlg fuse which was a bit of an experiment with the heavier layup but as as it happens the wing seating is an exact match for the mg06 section!. never mind the flying wing body, this one could be spot on for a 60" racer with a wing like that!.

Cheers