Skip Navigation Links
Home
For Sale
Contact
Skip Navigation Links
Investing
New Items
Photo Libraries Expand Photo Libraries
Our Aircraft
News
Support
Merchandise
Order Reservations
Contact

Home

Update

New pages to be added!

     F4U - 70 Series, Version 1 - Coming soon!!  The Original 70% Design!

 


75% F4U Project 
Blurry Photos taken with an 3G Apple iPhone

Jul-10-2010     75% F4U Project



Jul-09-2010     75% F4U Project



Jul-06-2010     75% F4U Project


The first three pictures show the skin after it has been laminated into place. 

I worked on the tail fin and added the first layers of resin onto the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer.

Jul-05-2010     75% F4U Project

Here you can see the foam has been sanded to the Rib.

The second photo shows the surface skin cut and I verified that it fits correctly.
 
Jul-03-2010     75% F4U Project

I added another layer to the top of the tail fin.  I can see that after I get finished sanding it down, the depression will still be there, so I will have to repeat the process again later.  

I hot wired the blocks off the Horizontal Stabilizer and sanded the foam down to the ribs.  I'll fill in the gaps and call it a night.

Jul-2-2010     75% F4U Project

The bottom of the Horizontal Stabilizer is complete, so I turned it over and added more foam blocks where needed. We will hotwire all the blocks tomorrow.

Jun-30-2010     75% F4U Project

Lots of ground covered today.  The tailfin was glazed and checked for issues.  Another portion of skin was added to one side of the HStab and I glazed the tail and checked for distortion in the shinny surface.

Jun-23-2010     75% F4U Project

Filling in the depression with foam left over from the opposite side.  I filled in the gaps where the foam did not adhere.

Photo 2 shows the tail fin getting the first layer of fiber glass.



Jun-18-2010     75% F4U Project

The tail fin is looking really looking good. I smoothed it out with 120gt and its smooooth! I can see a slight depression in the lower leading edge the will need to be sanded out tomorrow. Tonight I will add more glaze to the very tip to fill in 2 malformed areas you won't easily see in the photos. With any luck, I will fiberglass the Tail fin tomorrow while I work on the stabilizer.


Jun-15-2010     75% F4U Project

Yesterday, I glazed the entire Tail Fin in order to add one of the final build-up layers. I smoothed it out and could not resist putting into place to see how it looks.   The leading edge still isn't perfect enough, so I will glaze it again tonight before I leave.


Jun-12-2010     75% F4U Project

Losts to show today!

This time I foamed only between ribs I thought I needed to had the surface layer (skin) ad hear to.


I put a layer of resin on to build up the leading edge.  The Second Photo show an additional build-up layer needed to transition the surface to the wooden area.   Later I will glaze the entire part.


The tail section has a strange depression in it that the real corsair didn't have.   To save time I will laminate a .5" sheet of foam into place and hotwire it flat.  Well it worked and probably saved me a lot of weight and resin, but in the end, it was more of a headache than it was worth. 

 
While waiting for everything else to cure, I started working on filling in the dip along the bottom of the top half of the plug.   That only took a few minutes to smooth out so I sanded the area where the Cowl meets the body and I found a deep depression were the two meet.   I sanded with my largest sanding beam and when I was satisfied, I glazed the lowest area with a giant home-made spatula.  Worked good!

 
These two images show the newly designed end ribs.  Because the previous designs where not even close to the original Corsair's shape, this was the primary reason I started completely over with a new Horizontal Stabilizer design.   The transition in the shape of the ribs is near perfect this time.

Jun-11-2010     75% F4U Project

Tail fin development today.

Jun-07-2010     75% F4U Project

The skin for the tail fin was cut and put into place.  Everything looked good so I glued it into place and used sanding beams to hold the skin to the inner foam and ribs. 

Jun-06-2010     75% F4U Project
Dry fitting took longer than it should because of the extreme tight fit of the ribs to the rear spar.   The alignment is perfect and the leading edge alignment spar fit perfect the first time.

The last photo shows the new rib 1 being fit into place.  Rib one is on an angle and I've never re-figured out how to have the software cut ribs on an angle so a projected the shape the old fashioned way and it worked fine.   

Jun-05-2010     75% F4U Project
Laying out the new version of the ribs, sanding the edges and looking for issues and any improvements.

     
May-31-2010     75% F4U Project

VERSION 9 - Horizontal Stabilizer

I was able to figure out why the elevators looked so strange when trying to finish the last 3 end ribs.   I needed to change how the rib was lofted.  Also, I was using the wrong airfoil and I managed to figure out the right one to use. 

While inserting the new ribs into the master drawing, I found roughly 5 to 6 more improvements including a changed to the Bearing Assembly.   Basically, I just started over from scratch and incorporated improvements I learned from re-designing the Tail Fin and Rudder.

So during this 3 day holiday weekend, I spent 22+ hours re-designing and only 8 hours in the shop.  This collection of pictures shows the new version 9 ribs and the trim tab from the rudder being getting ready for skinning. br />
It's late so we'll knock-off for now and try to get the remaining ribs and support pieces cut tomorrow after we cut the improved spar design.

   
May-21-2010     75% F4U Project

The new Tail fin is dry-fit together and put into position.

Picture 2 has Dan holding the newest versionof the rudder in place.

     
May-16-2010     75% F4U Project

The changes made in Version 3 of the Rudder and Tail fin are suttle, but the fit is much better.

The second picture shows the last piece of the crutch being added.   We are almost ready to start froming some of the bottom panels.  Version 1 of the tail tin can still be seen but will be removed soon.

The thire picture show that the rear cockpit is now layered in resin and ready for the seat assembly.

 

Skip Navigation Links
Public Builders Logs
Private Builders Logs
NuLANtek Internal Build Logs

16-Sept-2009    F2G-1 No Longer Just a Concept!
We were approached this week by two engineers that were also getting ready to start an F2G-1 Corsair for the primary purpose of racing.  After several hours of discussion, it was decided to merge our efforts into one project. 

The new aircraft will be roughly 75% and will a two seater designed around a 900 HP engine.

We are currently concentrating on fund raising.

More news to come!
1-Sept-2009    F2G Concept Promotional Airplane Update
RT Foster is an extremely well know artist known for his Bomber nose-art and his work is featured all types of aircraft.  Mr. Foster and his daughter have agreed to do the concept artwork for a 'possible' future presentation to Marathon.
17-May-2009  The Bearcat was pulled from storage and the dimensions were checked to see just how much larger the aircraft would be if we mounted a Rotec R3600 rather than the Rotec R2800 that was originally planned.   ...more details later.
10-May-2009 The Japanese Zero Plans that were started 2 years ago were pulled out of storage due to the possibility we may need to build several for Jolly Roger's movie.
 
 
Copyright © 2010 NuLANtek Inc.