70 Series F4U - Build Logs

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70 Series - F4U - Build Log

May-30-2011 75% F4U Project *POSTED: 04-July-2011* After hotwiring and several layers of resin, the top of the horizontal stabilizer is looking like this will be the best one yet. I'll sand this part one more time and then fill in the lower depressions on the leading edge and then this side will be ready for a layer of fiberglass.
May-14-2011 75% F4U Project *POSTED: 04-July-2011, I apperently forgot about these pictures...* Inserting foam into the improved design for the elevator. The airfoil was changed back to the original airfoil for this version. However, the biggest improvement is the new way for which the part is tied down and kept perfectly flat. In earlier versions, we had all sorts of problems with the part twisting. If this way works, I'll re-build the rudder using the sale technique. Do not get too focused on the plywood center of the spar. What you are seeing is just an idea I had that I'm playing with. Also, remember this is the spar for the plug and NOT what will ever be in a fly-able aircraft.
May-08-2011 75% F4U Project The last layer of applied and we'll start sanding today. Planning the spars top and bottom the the same thickness. The sanding is nearly complete!
Apr-24-2011 75% F4U Project What a mess!
Apr-23-2011 75% F4U Project All of the ribs are now in place. As you can see, I made just a little to much glue, so a spread if over the surface to thin it out. Notice the 3rd ribe... the previous version was not exactly the correct shape and this new version is perfect. The tail fin pedestal got another layer of fill. One or two more layers and I can sand it and finish it. The new tail fin now has verticle ribs to help keep it straight this time while the resin is curing. The last one was un-salvagable so I'm actually glad I damaged it beyond repair a few weeks ago.
Apr-22-2011 75% F4U Project I tilted the tail fin back (Pictures 1 & 2) to see how well the pedestal formed and it came out perfect. I filled in some gaps and added the next layer of resin. Picture 5 shows all of the TOP spar cap with all of the layers being laminated into the fixture all at one time. Notice the extra clamps... Picture 6 is showing the newly re-designed elevator being glued together using an improved method to keep everything straighter this time. Picture 7 is demonstrating that the original airfoil that was selected when the tail section was changed and the template clamped to the side of the fuse is showing that there is now a gap that I need to take care of.
Apr-17-2011 75% F4U Project I popped the lower spar cap out of the fixture to be sure it would hold its shape. Looking good! I then stuck it back in the fixture and applied the 2 more layers. Too early to call it a night, I applied a layer of resin with additive to make it especially strong and I applied it to the top of the fuselage to start the pedestal where the tail will be fused in the assembly process.
Apr-10-2011 75% F4U Project The fixture is ready to go and the first 3 strips of the bottom cap is laminated together. It will stay in the mold for almost a week. I cut the first ribs and realized that the flap rib looks way too small. I cut out early to get back to my computer and back over my calculations. Yep, they're wrong alright. I was off nearly 5 inches, so these ribs are scrap and I go back into design mode!
Apr-09-2011 75% F4U Project The fixture is glued together today and I'll go back to work on the Flap fittings and rib design.
Apr-03-2011 75% F4U Project The first three layers are cut and dry fitted. We are ready to go as soon as I finish putting the fixture together.
Mar-26-2011 75% F4U Project I've been off-line for many days while I dedicate nearly all my free time to getting the spar design right the first time. I started by going back and looking over all of my Corsair restoration pictures, models, RC kits, other Homebuilt kits and all of my own prototype designs. For the plug design, I'm going with the W.A.R. Aircraft replica design and improving it slightly. I man once stopped by the Replica Fighters clubhouse a few years ago to find me. The conversation drifted into structural design and he told me that he took an aeronautical engineering class where the instructor actually used the WAR Corsair spar to demonstrate "Over" engineering. Actually, he is correct. If the builder builds it correctly, it's actually stronger than WAR publishes, however the extra engineering makes the spar too heavy for that size aircraft. Also, I've researched several well documented accidents. All incidents found so far, show pilot error in every case. I focused on gear-up landings and I also found two where the landing was in a rough field with both gear down. The spar never failed and in 2 cases it may be the spar that saved the life of the pilot. So the initial main spar design will be almost exact to the W.A.R. The photo shows the fixture that will help me star true to the final shape.
Mar-06-2011 75% F4U Project I'm not sure if I'm having a good day or a bad day. If you have been keeping up with these logs, several days ago I mentioned how tough this leading edge was. After today, I would have to say it's the most perfect I have ever made. As long as I don't mess up in the sanding phase, this will be some of my best work. On the other hand, when moving the HStab, I hit and knocked over the rudder and cracked it. When trying to re-align the crack to I can patch it, I put a whole in it and it just kept getting worse. I patched it before leaving and we'll just have to see if I can salvage it next time.
Feb-27-2011 75% F4U Project Wow, this has to be one of the hardest leading edges to get straight. The surface was not a problem but this one is tough! I had to walk away from it for a while so I decided to see if I can make the upper bearing arm. Without a mill I was surprised to get near perfect in the first shot. I contacted the manufacturer of my CNC router to see if I could purchase a Milling head for my machine. Yes, I can, but it will take some serious investment. Time to consider out-sourcing.
Feb-26-2011 75% F4U Project Moving back to the horizontal stabilizer, it is past time to get slurry on the leading edge and finish it.
Feb-20-2011 75% F4U Project A little more time spent on smoothing out the added slurry applied to the low area on Feb-13. Checking the tail fin with the rudder alignment. I still see something that isn't perfect in the rudder. However, the tail fin appears to be almost ready to be called finished. I need to start thinking about pulling the prints on linkage and buying the aluminum needed.
Feb-13-2011 75% F4U Project I still need to add a few more layers to build thickness so a can reshape the leading edge into the proper shape. The rudder is coming along nicely and should not be too much longer before I have the shape right and I can fiberglass it. The tail-cap is smoothing out well but there are still issues in the forward section as you can see in the 4th photo. I still have 1 more layer of slurry to go on the tail fin, but this photo shows everything is straight.
Feb-12-2011 75% F4U Project No photos today because I started a new main wing design and I'm not willing to share the 3D CAD images. But I can tell you that I've add many new features to make the process of building much easier than any of the others that I have built. I got most of my ideas from building both the former prototypes and from building a ½ scale W.A.R. Corsair.
Feb-11-2011 75% F4U Project I was right, sanding both sides into shape too less than 5 minutes each side. This new process is "Amazing". In photo 3, I popped the template off to find that it stayed perfectly straight thru the curing phase. In the last photo you can see it is so much straighter. Now the hard part begins. I have to maintain straightness while adding slurry to the low areas.
Feb-5-2011 75% F4U Project The tail-cap needs a few more layers to be sanded into shape later. I made a symmetrical template and that showed us just how "off" the top really was. I filled in the back and banded it into place and checked the alignment with a laser. This will help me keep things straight while I re-shape both sides of the top another day. I discovered a whole new way smooth the slurry while it is still wet, which will cut down on hours of sanding. Had I discovered this method before starting the Corsair, I would be months further along than I am right now.
Jan-22-2011 75% F4U Project I created a tool for checking that the body line is consistent and contoured to the print when the tool started to show areas that are really not right. To be honest, an untrained eye would probably never notice, but I would. I found the same thing on the opposite side. Without the new tail-cap, I probably would have never noticed. The right side is deeper than the right and a large amount of slurry will be needed. Picture 3 shows about how think I will to make it. I smoothed it out thinner after taking the picture to avoid making the slurry too hot and running the risk of fire.
Jan-16-2011 75% F4U Project Today was spent working on the rudder and refitting the tail-cap. I've never been satisfied with the tail fin and I can clearly see why now. Notice the top section where it meets the bottom? Look really close and you can see in this profile view that it does not match. It's as if they were two different airfoil. I'll fill it in with slurry and sand it flat another day.
Jan-15-2011 75% F4U Project I spent time fixing the tail cap which is turning out to be a bit more difficult than expected. However, while working on getting things just right, I notice that the tail section appears to have depressed areas that I have note noticed before. I added some slurry to the worst affected areas and will go hunting for more areas that need adjusting later. More time on the rudder just smoothing things out.
Jan-09-2011 75% F4U Project Another day alone in the shop proves to be very productive as I managed to get the tail section sanded. The new section really needed a ton of re-shaping but that was good with me as I got closer to the final shape I can actually see where the body was shaped incorrectly and will need to have the surface just under the tail fin raised and reshaped. In fact the same problem was found on the opposite side, but not as bad. More slurry will need to be added to the new section to erase some imperfections. After lunch I decided to dry fit the rudder on to the tail fin to give myself a feel good moment by seeing the tail section partially assembled. It blows my mind to see how huge everything is when it's assembled. I can't wait until the Hstab can be mounted with all these parts as well.
Jan-08-2011 75% F4U Project I was the only one in th shop this weekend and I still managed to get a lot done. This is what I managed to get done on the Horizontal Stabilizer in the early morning. Notice the tips are a mess. I added additional material because this is where mitakes are most likely to occure when sanding into the final shape. After lunch, I focused on the tail section while the slurry on the H.Stab hardens. As you can see I added the first layer of slurry. While that hards, I' head over to the work bench to see wha I can do to fix many problems that have come up. I stood the tail fin straight up and check the symatry and found that the left side-top has 2 flat spots that have to be filled with additional slurry and raised slighly so I can get the same shape as I have on the right side. Judging just how much material is hard but not as hard as sanding one side to match the other. For some reason, I have really good luck in getting it right. The resin is nearly hard enough to sand on the body and stabilizer, but I will call it a night and start in on them in the morning.
Dec-31-2010 75% F4U Project I forgot my camera! So this is just to say I spent my time on sanding the tail piece and working on the rudder until roughly 6pm.
Dec-30-2010 75% F4U Project This time, two of us used proper hot-wire techniques and cut a far more accurate part. I will cut mounting blocks that will hold the tail piece in place while I sand it. So, until the glue harders, I'm going to go work on the rudder some more.
Dec-29-2010 75% F4U Project The slurry coating from yesterday turned out well, but I can still see tons of depressions that are going to need attention. This is why friends don't let friends Hot-Wire alone! My assistant left early today and I wanted to get the new tail piece cut before heading to lunch myself. I came from the bottom up and the hot-wire followed the glue line and basically destroyed the part. Actually, that's with me because the block slipped while drying on one side and they were mis-aligned any way. I'll make another set tonight and cut them tomorrow.
Dec-27-2010 75% F4U Project More work on the rudder... Nothing too exciting...
Dec-26-2010 75% F4U Project I did some sanding on the top and bottom leading edges and then added the last balsa planks on the bottom leading edge. The big bungee-cords do an excellent job of holding the wood in place. Guess what the foam blocks with weights on top will be... The blocks have been glued together to fill in the area behind the rudder. When the glue is dry, I'll put the foam blocks into position (see photos 5 & 6) and my lab assistant and I will use a large hot-wire bow and to trim the blocks into shape.
Dec-25-2010 75% F4U Project These pictures were taken when I got in to do more cleaning. Everything came out well. I forgot to take pictures before leaving so you won't be able to see that everything smoothed out well. I finished-up early so I could go home and work on what I hope is the last Main Wing design. Yes, I've started over again. Next Day Here are the picture I forgot to take earlier of the big-ugly-rudder.
Dec-24-2010 75% F4U Project I came in just to clean the shop, but decided to add a resin layer to the lower leading edge of the rudder. I changed the mixture and got bad results.
Dec-20-2010 75% F4U Project I decided to soak the balsa wood with resin for two reasons. The first reason is to strengthen the wood and the other reason was to start filling in the depressed areas. The fiberglass on the bottom of the HStab cured without any issues so I continued to add a layer of resin & glass bubbles to the surface to start the smoothing process.
Dec-19-2010 75% F4U Project For the leading edge of the rudder, I decided to go back to basics and try a combination of balsa and foam. While waiting for the glue to dry on each strip of balsa, I covered the bottom side of the HStab. The wetting-out process went without any problems.
Dec-17-2010 75% F4U Project Tonight I glued the two top skins together. I made two formers to hold the shape of the skins. Lastly, I coat one side so I can make the skin shinny so I can easily see any dimples in the skin that I will address tomorrow.
Dec-15-2010 75% F4U Project The first half of the skin laminated into place perfectly. I trimmed up the edges and then started laminating the opposite side skin into place.
Dec-12-2010 75% F4U Project Because the shop got a bit cold last night, the resin was still too soft and we could not smooth out the leading edge until noon. Before heading to lunch we managed to wet-out the first layer of fiberglass. After lunch it was time to decide if the current design was going to work. I discussed this design with Senior Members of the Replica Fighters Association at the Oshkosh airshow this year. They recommended that I scrap this type of linkage and go back to basics. After much consideration, I will go back to the basic original design. The good news is that the current design will not have to change at all, so I could try the new design on the next variant. The last photo shows that I decided not to foam the entire rudder. We will skin the rudder and foam only the leading edge. We got one side done today and will try to find time next week to skin the other side.
Dec-11-2010 75% F4U Project Picking up where we left off, we added another layer to the leading edge on both sides and will smooth it in the morning.
Sept-28-2010 75% F4U Project More development on the Tail Gear.
Sept-12-2010 75% F4U Project I started the tail gear design in the early stages of the 35% prototype build, which was back in the day when we only had 2D CAD. Today I spent a few hours converting that design to a solid model. I modified the wheel forks to handle a 6" hard rubber wheel or an 8" pneumatic wheel assembly.
Sept-8-2010 75% F4U Project The original drawings of the IP were drawn 2D. The IP was converted tonight to a SolidModel so we can make faster adjustments for the new UMA Instruments.
Jul-10-2010 75% F4U Project A little more work on the horizontal stabilizer before leaving for Oshkosh.
Jul-09-2010 75% F4U Project Dry fitting the tail for a feel-good-moment.
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.
May-15-2010 75% F4U Project Version 2 of the tailfin and rudder are finally good enough to cut out. I can already see where improvements need to be made. I'll call it a night, and start version 3 in the morning.
Apr-30-2010 75% F4U Project More smoothing...
Apr-25-2010 75% F4U Project I took the cowling off to work on the bottom of the cowling.
Apr-24-2010 75% F4U Project The bottom of the cowling being foamed. NOTE: There are no photos for the last week or so due to time spent filling and smoothing out the body and the anomalies between the body and the cowling. When complete, you will not be able to tell where the cowling ends and the body begins.
Apr-14-2010 75% F4U Project Foam is cut for the bottom of the cowling and laminated into place. I need to find a supplier that can cut the nose bowl...
Apr-13-2010 75% F4U Project Tilting the bird up to start foaming the under belly. The first photo shows the second coating applied to the cowling and sanded down to meet the body. This time we got the cowling to mate to the body without any issues. The second photo shows the new "top" tail alignment piece being dry fitted and the last photo shows the gray coating that is used to seal the interrior.
Apr-11-2010 75% F4U Project The final Crutch strip is laminated into place and I reshaped the tail cone template just slightly.
Apr-10-2010 75% F4U Project As you can see, I got a ton of work done today. Not only did I get 25% of the foam glued in but I started so early in the morning tat I managed to hot wire it and add the first surface coat. While waiting for it to cure, I started working on the tail and designing alignment ribs that you will see later. The final two photos show that I'm adding the final crutch strip.
Apr-08-2010 75% F4U Project Version #2 of the Cowling plug. I re-measured everything and notice I added a horizontal rib to hold the shape a little better this time.
Apr-04-2010 75% F4U Project Here are images of the first cowling plug before I destroyed it. I'm trying to show you how it comes to a point and its supposed to continue the body's shape. Unfortunately these pictures don't do a good job of showing you what I mean.
Apr-02-2010 75% F4U Project AHHHHH NUTS!!! Turns out that the cowling is too narrow at the nose bowl. There's no way to save it, so I'm invoking RULE #1: Never be afraid to start over. ...So I did. I cut all new pieces
Apr-01-2010 75% F4U Project only had time to smooth out the first surface coat and add another
Mar-28-2010 75% F4U Project Dry fitting the infrastructure that will become the cowling plug. The last photo shows the first layer of the surface coating.
Mar-27-2010 75% F4U Project Assembly of the cowling inner structure
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Feb-28-2010 75% F4U Project We put the first layer of fiber glass on the first elevator today. In the last photo, the side was added. The non-functioning instruments are merely there for looks as this F4U is just the plug and will not actually fly.
Feb-19-2010 75% F4U Project The elevators are coming along nicely. The leading edges of both elevators are a mess. I'll have a lot of work ahead of me to straighten them out
Feb-15-2010 75% F4U Project The first 2 layers haven't come out as nice as I expected as you can see by the first two photos. The third and forth photos show a hand crafted filler piece for the inner wall of the elevator trim tabs.
Jan-25-2010 75% F4U Project Smoothing out the Horz. Stab. The ends of the leading edge are scultped with various sanders. The second photo shows the early stages. Then ends will be covered with resin and smoothed out several times before the correct shape is achieved.
Jan-03-2010 75% F4U Project New and improved version of the Horizontal Stabilizer. Sections are completed at different times due to the size of our largest hotwire bow.
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Dec-05-2009 75% F4U Project The elevator foaming goes well, but cutting the inlay was murder. I'm not conviced that installing the inlay will actually works. If the inlay doesn't work, I will take it out of the design and re-build again. I have a feeling there will be a 7th version.
Dec-04-2009 75% F4U Project Foaming the first elevator. The foam turned-out better than I expected, but I see more improvents. I won't make anymore more changes in this design, however, I did update the drawings for the next time.
Dec-01-2009 75% F4U Project Foaming the first elevator. The foam turned-out better than I expected, but I see more improvents. I won't make anymore more changes in this design, however, I did update the drawings for the next time.
Nov-29-2009 75% F4U Project I found too many area for improvement so I created and cut new version 7 of the ribs. This picture shows everything fitted together. The last pictue shows the new HStab glued and clamped together. This new design took 25 minutes to put together and glue.
Nov-28-2009 75% F4U Project The new ribs are being fitted onto the spar, with the new trailing edge alignment spar sitting just above the new spar. The last picture shows the new reinforced leading edge.
Nov-15-2009 75% F4U Project On the far left, you can see the new spar being laminated. In the middle you can see the new Leading edge design and that the ribs of the elevator now include the rivet holes for the bearing.
Nov-13-2009 75% F4U Project A design flaw was found and I had to go back and try to figure out what the elevators appeared to be so small. It turns out that the Spare was exactly 1.5" too far aft. Unsing the lessons learned thus far, I started completely over from scratch and improved the design.
Oct-10-2009 75% F4U Project Today we laid in the 2nd layer of glass.
Oct-07-2009 75% F4U Project Now that the surface is smooth, we laid the first layer of fiberglass.
Oct-6-2009 75% F4U Project Right HStab tip still needs work, but is almost complete.
Oct-5-2009 75% F4U Project Left side started and almost finished. Needs to be sanded into final shape after the curing.
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Sept-7-2009 75% F4U Project Pardon the mess! These two pictures give you a good idea on how big the stabilizer is in relationship to the rest of the plane.
Sept-6-2009 75% F4U Project We cut the spar for the stabilizer and decided to lay it into approximate position.
Sept-5-2009 75% F4U Project The new version of the ribs fit much better and notice that I added an newly designed alignment piece to the nose. This new piece not only keeps the ribs straight, but it also helps with the spacing. This thing is Big! ...and I haven't even got the elevator attached yet.
Sept-3-2009 75% F4U Project Several improvements were found when we assembled the ribs, so we went back and made changes to the master drawings. We will re-cut all ribs again tomorrow.
August-30-2009 75% F4U Project Cutting of the all new redesign of the Horizontal Stabilizer begins! While waiting for the Horizontal Stabilizer part to be cut out, I stuck in old gauges in to the instrument panel for fun.
August-22 & 23 of 2009 75% F4U Project Nothing but solid work for getting a new stabilizer designed. There was nothing wrong with the old design. However, the former design works better for a 1/5th scale aircraft than it does a 3/4 scale. So I decided to pull out my original design that I created a few years ago for the old 70% scale project (which we will not be building) and scale it up and improve it. My old 70% design called for fewer ribs but more support than I felt was needed to make the plug. So I changed the design to add more ribs and have most ribs evenly spaced. This will make the foaming process even easier and the whole piece stronger. The solid modeling software used does not do all the work for cutting the Elevator, so I exported the drawing into CAD and did all that work separately. (No pictures of that process shown)
July-04-2009 75% F4U Project The top half is almost complete. So much to do to get the outer skin smooth and free from dimples. We are still waiting to hear back from the canopy manufacturer about making changes to the WAR Aircraft Replicas Canopy I had molds made for several years ago. If he can stretch/shape the demo canopy to the desired shape, we can make a mold in a fraction of the time it took to make the WAR Corsair.
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June-23-2009 75% F4U Project .
June-22-2009 75% F4U Project The pics are a bit fuzzy... I remember to clean the lens after I took the pictures, so Tuesday's pics will be clearer. I hot wire the foam by myself tonight and they came out great. I'll add he two next to the firewall tomorrow.
June-21-2009 75% F4U Project I cut the blocks for all nine forward most sections, but I only glued in 5. I thought my hotwire bow was not long enough so I stopped. Turns out that it is plenty long enough and I could have glued them all in.
June-20-2009 75% F4U Project The back plates where install for the nose section. Notice that I left some panels open. I did that so we could study the gauge positions. Turns out that we will have to modify the IP (Instrument Panel) so the gauges will not go through the top skin. We will not modify this IP because is will be mounted to a pedestal and no one will ever see inside.
June-19-2009 75% F4U Project The canopy almost fits!!! I took the WAR F4U (~50% scale) canopy that I had made a few years back, and stuck it on to see how close it would fit. Photo 1: If you click on Photo 1 and 2 you will see just how close it is. The WAR F4U is Parallel with the Crutch line and the real F4U canopy angles downward like the 75% F4U does. I called the Canopy manufacturer tonight and left a message to see if we could possible hand re-shape this canopy to fit. If he's willing to do that, I could possible make a new plug from the stretched version. Over all the length is 100% dead-on. The bubble needs to be stretched back towards the seat about a 1½". Photo 2 & 3: If you click on Photo 2, you can see how far the back needs to be stretched downward. Notice that there is a bit of a gat between the canopy and the body. Reviewing pictures of the F4U-5, the canopy actually had a very small gap. I plan on re-shaping the body to remove some of that gap. The last picture shows the untrimmed canopy from the front where the windshield will go.
June-17-2009 75% F4U Project A bit more body work on the upper back and we started cutting the backing plates for the forward section tonight.
June-22-2009 75% F4U Project The pics are a bit fuzzy... I remember to clean the lens after I took the pictures, so Tuesday's pics will be clearer. I hot wire the foam by myself tonight and they came out great. I'll add he two next to the firewall tomorrow.
June-21-2009 75% F4U Project I cut the blocks for all nine forward most sections, but I only glued in 5. I thought my hotwire bow was not long enough so I stopped. Turns out that it is plenty long enough and I could have glued them all in.
June-20-2009 75% F4U Project The back plates where install for the nose section. Notice that I left some panels open. I did that so we could study the gauge positions. Turns out that we will have to modify the IP (Instrument Panel) so the gauges will not go through the top skin. We will not modify this IP because is will be mounted to a pedestal and no one will ever see inside.
June-19-2009 75% F4U Project The canopy almost fits!!! I took the WAR F4U (~50% scale) canopy that I had made a few years back, and stuck it on to see how close it would fit. Photo 1: If you click on Photo 1 and 2 you will see just how close it is. The WAR F4U is Parallel with the Crutch line and the real F4U canopy angles downward like the 75% F4U does. I called the Canopy manufacturer tonight and left a message to see if we could possible hand re-shape this canopy to fit. If he's willing to do that, I could possible make a new plug from the stretched version. Over all the length is 100% dead-on. The bubble needs to be stretched back towards the seat about a 1½". Photo 2 & 3: If you click on Photo 2, you can see how far the back needs to be streched downward. Notice that there is a bit of a gat between the canopy and the body. Reviewing pictures of the F4U-5, the canopy actually had a very small gap. I plan on re-shaping the body to remove some of that gap. The last picture shows the untrimmed canopy from the front where the windshield will go.
June-17-2009 75% F4U Project A bit more body work on the upper back and we started cutting the backing plates for the forward section tonight.
June-13-2009 & June-14-2009 75% F4U Project Yet another week of body work, but we are very close to fiber-glassing. I've been asked why there is a piece missing in the lower-aft section. That section will get put in after the tail gear is installed. This plug will have no need for gear, but we don't want to pass up the opportunity to fit the gear now, so when we build one what will need gear, we will no in advance that there will be no problems with our modified design. Photo 1: Notice the shine on the skin. The shinny areas are where the surface is correct and the dull areas are indications where epoxy filler is needed to fill in the low areas. Both Pictures were taken on Saturday and by the end of the day on Sunday, very few dull spots remain. Photo 2: Shows that the body formers were sealed with resin to prevent high moisture from destroying the inner structure. This is the last step before we start putting the skin on We hope to fit the first canopy this next weekend. At this rate, we will not be ready to take the plug to Oshkosh. Darn! I was really looking forward to seeing the look on Paul's and his father's face when this monster gets dropped off at his tent. Paul and his father are the founders of the Rotec Engines we plan on using.
June-06-2009 & June-07-2009 75% F4U Project Another weekend of body work and glueing stringers into the upper forward section.
May-31-2009 75% F4U Project Photo 1 - Mostly Body work. I added several layers of glass bubbles and started smoothing out all of the hot-wire mistakes. Photo 2 - stringers in the forward section that were dry fitted were glued into place.
May-25-2009 75% F4U Project Most of the foam is now in place on the aft upper section of the body. I hot wired all the sections as I worked alone this holiday weekend. Notice the forward section has plywood on it. The plywood was an experiment to see if I could get cheap door skins to take the shape without cracking. There was some cracking and popping, but for the most-part the door skins fit fine. If it's decided that we can finish the skinning process with this type of plywood, then that will save the project hundreds of dollars over using aircraft ply. The aircraft ply we use cost roughly $149-$189 USD a sheet. We will play with this a little more in the coming week.
May-23-2009 and May-24-2009 75% F4U Project Photo 1 - Show a bit more progress was made adding and cutting the block into shape. Photo 2 - While waiting for the block to cure, I spent a large amount of time playing with a prototype of the rear gear retract assembly. We found a couple improvements we will try in future prototypes.
May-21-2009 and May-22-2009 75% F4U Project The first foam blocks where glued into place during a demonstration. I came back after the glue had set and hot wired the block. Before leaving cut 4 more blocks and glued them into place. By the end of the Memorial Day weekend, I hope to have all panels that I do not need for accessing the center of the aircraft, in place and shaped. Work was also dont to the tail fin (not pictured).
May-17-2009 75% F4U Project Photo 1 & 2: We started cutting and laying more backing plates into place. Photo 3 & 4: You can see that we started glueing the backing plates into place. Not all plates will be glued in until the landing gear it fitted. This aircraft will not have the gear but future versions will.
May-16-2009 75% F4U Project Photo 1: We added another layer to the leading edge. Photo 2: While waiting for the Leading edge to cure, we spent time designing a new rib to add strength to the Tail-fin post. Also, the added rid will give us more surface area to mount the skin that will hold the Horizontal Stabilizer in place. Photo 3: With the leading edge finally cured enough, we added a very thin layer of epoxy to the out skin to seal the pours of the wood and provides a little more strength. This also helps bring out any unwanted dimples we may need to repair before we start fiber glassing.
May-10-2009 75% F4U Project Photo 1: Time was spent increasing and strengthen the leading edge of the Tail fine. Photo 2: Additional Formers were added to hold the plywood that will hold the rear canopy slide rail. Photo 3: No matter which foaming system we decide on, we will need to add backing plates of some kind to help keep the foam in the correct position. If Polyurethane is used it will help to cut down an the amount of foam used. Most importantly these backing plates actually add more strength. NOTE: For those of you that have not read the entire project, you need to know that this particular plane is NOT meant to fly. This is a static display that will be mounted on a custom made pillar in Muskeegon, Michigan. The plane will be painted in the colors of Ike Kepford's plane and be on display in front of the Muskeegon LST Museum.
Apr-18-2009 & Apr-19-2009 75% F4U Project The left side of the tail fin is glued into place and comes out of the clamps without any defects. After adding the final stringer to the top left section, we dry fitted the horizontal stabilizer cradle into place. The former was about 1½ degrees out of place so we will make a custom part to help hold the cradle in place. I'll focus in on that later.
Apr-04-2009 & Apr-05-2009 75% F4U Project More stringers were added into place and we tried making a fixture to help hold the skin of the tail fin in place while it dried. I don't like using clamps as they can depress the skin creating dimples. After wasting all after noon on a fixture, we settled for using clamps any way. We got lucky and the skin was dimple free. While waiting for the epoxy to cure we played with dry fitting the part that will hold the canopy track. The fit is near perfect but we found ways to possible improve on the design. We will take another look at a possible design change later.
Mar-28-2009 & Mar-29-2009 75% F4U Project Mostly finish-up work this week. Pictures to come soon. We finished adding the final layers to the crutch and also worked on the top most stringer which we call the back-bone. We'll finish the back-bone next week. We need to finish up the re-designs of the tail gear so Gerry can start cutting the aluminum and we can get the hydraulics ordered. Even though the pictured plane is for display only and will need no landing gear, we felt that we could not pass up the opportunity to complete any possible design changes to the tail gear now and save ourselves a little bit of work in the future.
Mar-15-2009 75% F4U Project The leading edge of the tail fin will need to have a build up of epoxy before we can shape it. A new layer of approximately 3/8" was applied and will let harden. Any more and the resin could over heat and cause a fire. No work Saturday meant that we had to make up for lost time on Sunday. The final layer of epoxy was applied to the bottom section last week and was still not hard enough to sand due to the cold air in the shop. Rather than waiting for it to cure after bringing the room up to 80°F, we turned the assembly over and started dry-fitting the crutch and stringers. We broke-out the laser and aligning the body. The crutch is now glued into place and the stringers in the rear section are also glued in as well. While wating for the crutch and stringers to cure, we played around with three possible ways to create the outer skin. The best option so far was to custom fit blue styrene foam. The third picture shows the shaped foam dry fitted into place. The styrene foam worked far better than we imagined. Using a technique we learned form Gerald Clark of EAA Replicas Fighters Association. This method is especially good because we can now hot-wire the foam into perfect shape. The last two pictures show the tailfin and rudder spine clamped into place for a photo-opportunity. The laser was still on and when we put the rudder on, the alignment was perfect. Notice the laser on the table saw, in the back-ground.
Mar-08-2009 75% F4U Project The first picture shows the original rudder design. At 1/5th scale, this design works well. However, at 75% scale, the design doesn't really work unless we plan on designing some massively heavy/expensive hinges. Also it leaves creating the leading edge very difficult to shape with foam or any other method. Any way we would attempt to finish the rudder would leave it less then optimally strong. So a redesign was called for. I started by drawing the center-pivot-line (as you can see). After a few seconds, we had a solution. We reviewed how other aircraft tackled the rudder and I found that WAR Aircraft Replicas' design could be retro-fitted and slightly modified to work. I won't spoil it for you now, I will cover the design changes in future postings. This week, I finally finished the skeleton of the tail-fin and I started shaping the leading edge too. The next step will to add a fair amount of very hard resin on the leading edge and shape it to perfection, much the same way that we finshed off the front-bottom section that you see in the final picture. A ton of time was spent on smoothing out the first layer of resin that was used to fill in the depressed areas. Once finished with that step, I added a health portion of easy-to-sand resin and smoothed it out in order to make sanding a bit easier (as seen in the last picture). The next step will be to sand everything perfectly flat one more time and then add a thin layer of fiberglass for surface strength. CarbonFiber could be used, but we felt it was a waist of money considering this airplane will be used to make molds and super strength in this section was just not needed.
Feb-28-2009 & Feb-29-2009 & Mar-01-2009 75% F4U Project NOTE: all pictures are of the Firewall and first fomer while the aircraft is upside-down. If the first picture, you will see the "spacer" being fused into place and clamped. The second picture shows the stringers in place. When building a 50% WAR Aircraft Replicas design, the plans call for sheets of polyurathane foam to be glued together and laminated to the fuselage. Later, you would sand the foam down to the body formers. Sheets of polyurethane foam are outrageously expensive. We wanted to try the liquid version of polyurethane foam and see if we could get better and cheaper results. ...better? maybe... Chaeper? ...probably. What we found was that you had to mix up very small batches and immediately apply it to a small section. Not once could we apply all of the resin without having sticky foam all over the place and as you can see on the last two images, it's impossible to get it on evenly. Just to foam this small section, we went thru 1 set of bottles (resin and activator). One major benefit was that the foam was completely cured at 45 minutes and we could sand and apply the small batches more times per day than expected. Conclusion: Liquid Foam will work, but hand-appling just is not going to be efficient. We will look into setting the pressurized spaying systems to foam. Otherwise, we will be going back to polystyrene. DOW just released a Polystyrene system much like the existing urathan systems. An email was sent to DOW, but we are still waiting to hear back from them.
Feb-28-2009 & Feb-29-2009 & Mar-01-2009 75% F4U Project Originally, the shelf between the two body formers that our CEO is working on, was meant to be nothing more that a device to keep the body formers properly spaced-out. However, Joe Labert (Pictured) took the idea and turned it into a fuel tank shelf. It turns out that the location will allow the fuel cap to be located in the same location the real one was. We will try to turn this section into a compartment that will open for fuel tank removal/maintenance. Remember, this particular Corsair design is a the static display version only. So this idea will be transferred to the flyable version. Kits of the smaller 1/5th scale will be available by another comapny soon!!! There are no plans to post development pictures of the flyable F4U at this time.
Feb-20-2009 & Feb-21-2009 & Feb-22-2009 75% F4U Project The center "Spine" for the Horizontal Stabilizer may look complicated but turned out the easiest to create tool paths for. Click on the image to see how the program created the tool paths for our CNC Router. These and many more parts will be cut out and prepared for assembly tomorrow morning. We managed to get the tail fin 80% finished. As some point I forgot the change dimensions after increasing the thickness of the support pieces so they didn't fit exactly right the first time. This is actually the third version with the leading edge just laying on top while the Epoxy dries on the lower pieces. We had better luck with the center cestion of the Horizontal stabilizer. The pieces all fit perfectly the first time.
Feb-14-2009 & Feb-15-2009 75% F4U Project The wing saddle was reinforced with two more layers of plywood. We disassembled the entire aircraft and made some minor last minute adjustments and added clear coat to several of the parts. The center photo shows that gluing has started with the firewall. The second rib is not finished and will undergo another modification; however it worked well to help pull the firewall flat onto the wing saddles. Aluminum fittings will be added to the final version to add even more strength. Many more parts were laminated (not shown), while waiting for the parts to cure, we started cutting the vertical and horizontal tail feathers.
Feb-08-2009 - Late Eveneing - Late Eveneing 75% F4U Project The first photo shows the aircraft being dry fitted and we used that to check alignment. The alignment was not perfect enough considering this aircraft will server an the master plug from wich to make the molds. The second photo shows the support beam directly behind the pilots head. The third photo shows the control panel with holes that will hold the tradition "Steam Guages". The layout was modeled by way of overlaying an image of the real F4U-1A's control panel. The fit was almost perfect. Two of the guages had to be moved and two additional guages were added to monitor possible wing and or drop-tank(s).
	01-02-01-2009 - Late Eveneing 75% F4U Project Just for fun, we took a few layers of the crutch and put them into place on the rear section of the fuse and placed some of the remaining body formers into place, including the Tail Gear Structure. This thing is starting to look like an airplane!
	01-02-2009 - Early Morning 75% F4U Project Tail Gear Mounting Structure complete. For the prototype, we will leave the assembly made from 2 layers of ¼" Ply. because this particular version will likely never get fitted with any landing gear. The next version will be made of aluminum.
	25-01-2009 75% F4U Project The crutch takes shape using an old multi-layer technique. The crutch is fairly strong with only 2 layers and will be get exponentially stronger wtih each layer. The cruch uses three species of soft and hardwoods.
	18-01-2009 75% F4U Project New improved parts were cut. You can see the new version being assembled on the table. Also note the Original 35% prototype in the background.
	17-01-2009 75% F4U Project Assembly of the first parts cut show many opportunities for improvement
	1-01-2009 75% F4U Project Begins The First parts are cut!

Public Builders Logs

Private Builders Logs

NuLANtek Internal Build Logs

07-Sept-2011
Facility News UPDATE: The est. costs on a new building were far too out of my reach and I'm not willing to borrow $300,000. So we will be reconsidering renting again if we can find something reasonable.

11-July-2011
Facility Update! I contacted my builder today and he's telling me that the bid package and designs will be done this week for the new facility.

15-June-2011
Into storage we go! It was getting clear to us the current facility was getting too small and our lease was at an end. So we moved into a storage facility until we could build or find a larger place to rent.