Beginnings of thin sheet metal plane

[Hotfoot]

This will be "weather Vane Sized", and inspired by Jet Fighters, such as the F-4 Phantom..but limited to my resources of snips, hammer as etc. I keep trying to find a cheap sheet roller, but they don't often show up.

This is a 6" scrap of gas vent pipe. The finished plane will have about a 30" wingspan, and be about that long...more or less...I know it takes a lot of head-scratchin' to see how it'll ever get beyond the scrap pile stage...and maybe it won't, but I've been wanting to try my newly acquired HH187 on some thin sheet, and this is about as thin as I usually get (about as think as two sheets of printer paper). The steel structure to support it on the vane, plus support the wings, will be inserted inside, the, either riveted or bolted to the main fuselage, so it should be relatively weather-proof.





I first tried my ,030 Techniweld wire, running on #1 - 25ws. The machine performed just about exactly like my HH180 did. then I switched over to a roll of ESAB .023, which seems to run hotter than the Techniweld did, and not quite as manageable as it, either...but 'ya never know if'n ya never tries!

This was my first lap joint on this thin stuff with the ESAB wire. (forgive my wanderin' line. I was impulse-ing with the trigger (my usual thin sheet approach), I was only able to "weld on the welds" without burning through...slower, but it works! The 187 had definite differences between the 120 wirespeed, 125, and 130...120 sputtered, 130 was too aggressive, 125 seemed to work best...but a tad hotter than I thought it should be.

[Wyoming]

What, no Sopwith Camel to start off with? Tiny steps Foot...tiny steps. I'm waiting around until you start on a GeeBee like Doolittle flew back in the '30s. Jets may be fast, but they lack 'character'.

[Hotfoot]

Those pylon racers were (and some are still around!) absolute maniacs! They were the Motorcycle Speedway Racers of the aircraft world...but on a Speedway bike, yo always have the chance to slide-out (except for those pesky walls!). I think I'll try to dig up some old films of the Pylons Racers on the web.

Thanks for that post, Wyo!

[Wyoming]

Foot, while you're at it, take a gander through the life of one of the best pylon racers/aeronautical engineers/war heroes out there...Jimmy Doolittle. That ol' boy was the real deal in almost any field he cared to delve into. Army Signal Corp gave him two years off to complete his master's degree in aeronautics from M.I.T...did it in one and took the second year to get a doctorate. Flew the GeeBee in '32 to the win as good training for taking off the carrier deck with a B25 a few years later to bomb Tokyo when the American people needed a hero. Invented and perfected instrument flying as well as testing it by flying with a blacked out canopy from take off to landing...not just the flying part, but the mechanicals as well. Flight instructor during WWI and flew jets into at least the '70s.

EDIT: I believe the story with the GeeBee was that Doolittle had to take the plane high for every pylon because the plane would go more or less out of control on turns and he needed the elevation to keep from crashing...and still won the race in that over powered, stub winged whiskey barrel!

[Hotfoot]

So, I began forming the intake ducts by pinching in the body, and allowing the original outline to form the duct...but I had to extend these to the back of the wings, so that would require slicing, and grafting in a filler...so I just sliced smaller tube, and attached it as dusting.(see picture, It shows the "original" ducts still in place, but the new pieces tacked onto the fuselage).

I'll flatten those original ducts back into the body, which will also emphasize the size of the new ducts. I will deal with the exhaust ends as I do the tail of the aircraft. Lots of welds starting to clutter-up the front of the fuselage,...I may have to paint it camo to distract from all those!
(Bad pictures from Ol' Shaky!)





Remember, this is heading up on top a barn, etc..so detail will be more implied than actual! This is NOT a F4 Phantom...it is simply "inspired" by one! and I do not work from plans, but rather stick this-and-that together as I go...As a matter of fact, it came very close to becoming a gar-like fish two steps back...but I made a point of "saving that thought"...so will probably be doing one of those soon enough.

[Hotfoot]

So, I beat the original ducts down, finished it up a bit more, photoshopped the welds (so I can start getting an idea of its final shape up front.)