CAD Finished and Project Notes

As you may have seen the project has finally gone through it’s final planning phase, remaining only the assembling/fabrication. For now I’m uploading the assemble IGS file, but later I’ll add drawings and instructions for ease of manufacture. There’s some weird aspects to the design to those used with fixed wing models, and I should explain them:

1- I have always had trouble with folding depron boards. I dislike cutting them midway, I dislike being careful to glue the bends, I dislike accidentally cutting into the paper… It was never a good experience to me. By making everything into panels, it not only resembles an actual aircraft manufacturing process, but also the components are almost always geometrically simple plates, and if there are any imperfections, well, just add more hot glue!!!

2- The tail section is way too large for this category of aircraft, this is absolutely true. Could I have made the tail differently? Most likely. Could it be a boom? Probably, yes. But the constant area sections made the design incredibly easier and it’s what allowed me to finish the whole CAD assembly in just a couple days and about 12 hours of work. It might not be the greatest looking, or most efficient design, but it has good stiffness for relatively short design work, and what else could one ask for?

3- Where’s the landing gear? Well, I didn’t make one. First because this design could be hand-launched. Second, because honestly the time-designing-to-payoff ratio of the landing gear for these models is incredibly bad. If one wants to make a landing gear, just use a couple triangles and a depron beam, use foam wheels or whatever else, skis, go nuts! The geometry is the most important part, and this is best done after the rest is assembled, and is how I plan doing it myself.

With this, I’ll be publishing the design and if I get any donations I’ll use it to buy (much needed) materials to finish the plane. See y’all at the next update ;)