3.3 Meter Ford Flivver

[Ryan O.]

The motor box and shelves are installed. For the shelves I sandwiched one piece of elmer’s foam between two pieces of ft foam, with the grains at 90 degrees to each other for maximum strength. I then glued in the top one. Before I glued in the bottom shelf, I made my motor box. I took the spare firewall out of the shinden and glued it to a 13.4x13.4 cm foam board box. I then used a lot of extreme packing tape along the sides only to reinforce the joint between the firewall and the box. I didn’t tape over the top and bottom because that’s where I’d be gluing them to the shelves. I then glued the motor box to the shelf and followed it up with some more extreme packing tape, just to be safe.

I’ve decided to make the batteries load in from the top where they will sit as far forward as possible.

After I finalize all the reinforcements and access holes, I’ll update the plans.

It turns out I’ve been pronouncing Flivver wrong this whole time.

 

[Ryan O.]

The headrest's aerodynamic cover is done, and this is essentially what the flivver's side profile will look like when complete:

Hopefully this time the wood from Home Depot isn't warped, because I need to get a bunch of 1/3" and 1/2" square dowels for the spar of the wing. If I can't find it there, I'll just go to a hardwood shop 40 minutes away and get some there.

 

[Ryan O.]

I'm malong the spars, starting with one half of the trailling edge spar. There wasn't any 1/3" poplar, so I switched to 3/8" instead. The foam board is just hot glued on, but the coroplast is sanded with 60 grit sandpaper before being gorilla glued and weighed down for 3 hours. After weighing just the sticks (1/2" dowels for the main spar, 3/8" dowels for the te) they only weigh 0.9 kg, so with all the coroplast, foamb board, and glue I expect the total weight of the spars to be just 1kg, which is pretty light considering how strong they are. For reference, the spar on the Shinden weighed about 2.5+ kg.

 

[Ryan O.]

I’ve gotten spar production down to a science now, and as soon as the weather warms I can probably get all then fiberglassed at the joints and then do the shear webbing in a weekend. After that I can cut out the wing and bend the landing gear with a jig.

 

[Ryan O.]

I considered not finishing the project as a change in cars meant I could no longer fit the Flivver in the trunk. I’ve decided to build it for a one way trip to FF’22 instead and the first step was finally finishing the top and bottom front fuselage skins. Next of course was painting which came out well, as you can see I’ll have to give us a second coat for some touch up (silver didn’t go far enough on visible side and fingerprints in the blue of the other side). I also may add the Ford logo and other writing, it all depends on how much time I have before FF’23. I also decided on 1/2” wooden dowel landing gear with 3d printed petg mounts and joiners.

Me for scale

 

[JetCrafts]

I considered not finishing the project as a change in cars meant I could no longer fit the Flivver in the trunk. I’ve decided to build it for a one way trip to FF’22 instead and the first step was finally finishing the top and bottom front fuselage skins. Next of course was painting which came out well, as you can see I’ll have to give us a second coat for some touch up (silver didn’t go far enough on visible side and fingerprints in the blue of the other side). I also may add the Ford logo and other writing, it all depends on how much time I have before FF’23. I also decided on 1/2” wooden dowel landing gear with 3d printed petg mounts and joiners.
View attachment 230000 View attachment 229999 Me for scale
View attachment 230001

wow I'm speechless and god addition of peeeps

 

[Ryan O.]

The fuselage servos are finished and I was able to fix the paint errors yesterday. I am a little concerned by the lack of rudder throw, so I may be forced to add a steerable tailwheel.

I may be able to get away with not cutting a hatch in the nose of the Flivver, it all depends on how far forward the batteries have to go to balance things out.

The weight of the fuselage, batteries, motor, and servos included, is about 9lbs, a little more if I end up needing a third lipo for nose weight after wing is finished. For reference the motor has 15.5lbs of thrust with this prop, and assuming a few losses due to the fuselage blocking some of the airflow I’d guess 14lbs. With the wing likely weighing about 6-9lbs, I should have a healthy thrust/weight ratio.

One last thing, it turns out I can fit the Flivver in the trunk of the car after all if I move the front seat up a bit.

 

[Quinnyperks]

Are those the same servos from the Shinden lol

 

[Ryan O.]

Are those the same servos from the Shinden lol

Indeed, one servo and one control horn live on to continue the curse. Cheap and slow but they’ve never failed on me.

 

[Ryan O.]

The spars are done, yardstick for scale. They only weigh 2.2lbs combined, so maybe I can get the wings down do 4lbs each.

 

[Ryan O.]

This is what the wing looks like before flying on the skin. The piece of plywood with a bunch of foam triangles is for the landing gear, it will be sandwiched between that and a thinner piece in the bottom. I’m going with a single piece metal wire landing gear instead of wood now to save weight. Because of the smaller diameter prop than scale it can be slightly lower to the ground to reduce flex. I’m thinking anywhere from 1/8-1/4” wire. If there is too much flex I’ll add in supporting pieces of course.

 

[Ryan O.]

Wing skin, minus the ailerons, is done. It weighs 2lbs right now, so with the electronics, landing gear, and aileron it should be about 3lbs a half.

 

[The Fopster]

Wing skin, minus the ailerons, is done. It weighs 2lbs right now, so with the electronics, landing gear, and aileron it should be about 3lbs a half. View attachment 230380 View attachment 230381

That’s an epic project. Can’t wait to see it completed. Good luck - so much work in a build that big… 😃

 

[Ligbaer]

How are you gonna hinge the ailerons? rather interested if there is a better method than tape.

 

[Ryan O.]

How are you gonna hinge the ailerons? rather interested if there is a better method than tape.

Just packing tape on both sides works well.

 

[Ligbaer]

Just packing tape on both sides works well.

ok thanks!

 

[FoamyDM]

I have just build a 100" Glider Wing. And have been very interested in Giant scaled construction Foamboard for a while now.
The top wing surface Foamboard Skin had the paper removed? is the wing one piece?

 

[Ryan O.]

I have just build a 100" Glider Wing. And have been very interested in Giant scaled construction Foamboard for a while now.
The top wing surface Foamboard Skin had the paper removed? is the wing one piece?

The paper on the inside it removed. The wing is two pieces, the other half is yet to be built.

 

[Ryan O.]

I taped on the aileron and got it the wing half painted quickly. The aileron is simply doubled up foam board with clear packing tape on both sides like I said before.

 

[The Fopster]

I have no idea if this is a good idea, but I’d be tempted to experiment trying to spray expanding foam into that wing D box. Wonder what that stuff weights? Amazing build!