Bristol Blenheim 132cm

Userofmuchtape&glue

Posted a thousand or more times
So one of my dads (and my) favourite planes is the Bristol Blenheim.
For a long time I have been wanting to make one, so yesterday at about 2 o'clock I got out my ancient laptop and pulled up a 3 views of the blenheim.

I worked out that x's by 6 the plans would work out at 132cm WS, so I started cutting! I will post pic as soon as I can.
Abe
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Method is really simple.

Find some Aluminium cans

SUNP0005.JPG

Cut a hole in the base of the can and trim the can to required cowl depth

SUNP0006.JPG

Run multiple cuts from the hole to the base ring of the can and push the AL fingers into the can and out of sight. When done paint to your desired colour

SUNP0007.JPG

Make a few spares just in case!!

It works for me!!!

P.S. I use a small pair of nail scissors to make the cuts in the base of the can and ordinary scissors to cut the cowl to required depth.
 
Last edited:

Userofmuchtape&glue

Posted a thousand or more times
Not really, I messed up the wing (spar to short and too much dihedral,) and I did not have matching 30A ESC's. I was looking at it today, I might get back at it soon. Lot of work though, the cockpit windows have got to be moved forward about 6cms.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Not really, I messed up the wing (spar to short and too much dihedral,) and I did not have matching 30A ESC's. I was looking at it today, I might get back at it soon. Lot of work though, the cockpit windows have got to be moved forward about 6cms.

Don't fret! The spars can be extended rather than replaced. using a few pieces over the joint is the simplest method of reinforcing the joint though a good splice can also be really strong.

Too much dihedral,:confused:, worry about dihedral when the wings are assembled and ready for fitting. Make the dihedral braces out of scrap plywood as long as you require and as many as you deem fit but after everything else is finished.

Moving the windows is going to be your only real challenge.

Just a thought, What do you use to rough out your design? Myself, I use a couple of 50c sheets of A1 graph paper taped together and then draw in pencil using ruler Etc to draw out my design first. When my design seems ready I just position the drawing over the FB using a few cheap clamps and poke the relevant points through the plan using a pin or similar. When all of the important points are poked into the FB I remove the Plan and play join the dots with the same ruler and pencil Etc.

When scaling from a photograph or similar I take many measurements and feed them into a spreadsheet and apply a scaling factor to get the final required dimensions for my paper plan. Simple really, and it works well!

I only need to draw one wing, one side of the Fuselage, the power pods for one wing, one top view of the fuselage to get all the required dimensions for the build. If the design is successful then and only then will I draw the plans on the computer because printing plans makes continuous adjustments to the plans a little difficult and uses a lot of printer ink whereas an eraser only costs a few cents.

If I can help I will!

Fly high and land gently!
 

Userofmuchtape&glue

Posted a thousand or more times
Thanks!

For the spar I had 3 bits of square wood, the 2 end bits were glued to the middle on the side of it, then some tacks were bunged through the lot. heavy, but it worked.

Now the centre piece was too short because of my dodgy measuring (more on that later,) and the "wings" of the spar were about 3/4 of the required length plus I used C type batteries to chock it up at the ends so all in all about 3 times to much dihedral.

It just looked wunky!
The next wing I plan to try and make it much better quality.

For designing it, I pulled up a set of 3 views on my ancient 2002 laptop and measured it with a ruler then x's by 6. it has worked on 4 other planes!

I made a mistake on the wing centre section, I think I times'd some measurements by 6 and others by 5. so 4 sections later, I worked it out!

Abe
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
sorry to here that your first attempt didn't go so smoothly :( but keep trying because I can't wait to see one of these planes fly!:applause:
 

Userofmuchtape&glue

Posted a thousand or more times
Hey thanks!

I will defiantly keep trying. I think I was just to tired to be measuring at that time of night (morning!).....
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
7? By then I have about an hours flying seeing as I rise at 3 to 4 am these days, (but I do have a siesta around midday).

Definitely keep at it but just ask your dad for some large graph paper to draw on because it makes a permanent record of all of your measurements and design decisions. Also if in your design you find something is too weak you can go to the drawing and draw in a reinforcing piece and use the plane for exact dimensions when you cut out the piece.

I have a plan library of my own designs about 30 strong and growing constantly.

My next creation on paper will be a unique design so I have nothing to measure except the drawing/plan I will make.

Just watch out for it soon.

Keep up the good work and ALWAYS keep trying! Remember each achievement is normally the result of a hundred failures and perseverance.