Ok, that took longer than I wanted it to. Kept redoing things and updating the plans. I want this to be easily repeatable, and scale-able. I think I have nearly accomplished that. I'll have to post up the actual build outline later as it's time for bed. Got to travel for Christmas tomorrow.
So, this will be easy to scale. I'm thinking of simply putting out several different sizes to fit the various FT planes that are good float candidates. The main center float on the Zero seems to not really be much different than any other generic float, it's just massive.
It's also not that hard to build now that i've worked out the bugs. I think if I draw out some good foam gauges to help line parts up the build will be very fast. There aren't that many pieces, and aside from the big pieces it's mostly straight lines. Everything gets coated with packing tape, and with the internal structure and hard wood mounts on the interior it is incredibly strong.
Beta plans still need a bit of work. Needs some gauges made so that all bends are repeatable. and I haven't done the bitty side ones ye Those should be easy though. Here's what the look like now:
PDF:
42" A6M Zero Floats Beta v.2
Temporary install with tape. Old landing gear still needs to go away.
Ribs:
Rear Wire Mounts:
112 grams for this giant one. Not bad considering. It's less weight than a Go-Pro which this plane would handle without blinking. I over used hot glue on one of the mounts cause it was hard to get to on the prototype. That's fixed for the new method. I also only had really heavy wire. If I had piano wire or something stiffer I could go with smaller gauge stuff.
Ignore my bad taping job please.
A lot of it got put on after the fact because I kept tweaking things. If you build a set of these, putting the tape on before folding and gluing will make things look a lot prettier.
