Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Pusher Scratchbuild

[cvdmaverick]

A while back I watched Nerdnic's DTFB design videos and was inspired to create a bird of my own. I created a small 30ish inch wingspan Cessna 210. It flew pretty well after some tweaks and I then wanted to build something more challenging. I decided to build a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Pusher style. So I got to work in Google sketchup and figured out how all of my pieces would go together and created my first set of plans.
This thread will keep track of my progress with the build. I will try and update my progress as often as possible. Most of my pictures are sideways now after transferring them from my Phone. Sorry!

Plans Taped and cut

Bevels cut on the control surfaces.

This is the main spar I am attaching most of my pieces to. I may also run wires through it. This piece was to long to fit on one sheet of foamboard so I had to cut it and the tape/glue it together. (kind of like how you would attach to wing halves.)

Formers starting to go on





Elevator attached

Wing attached and its starting to look like something
That is all of the progress I have made so far when I make some more headway I will post some more pics.

 

[ClearSkiesCalmWinds]

Very curious.

 

[cvdmaverick]

Didn't have much time to work today but I got my Ailerons working and my elevator servo glued in.

 

[JamesWhom]

wow looks awesome! I've been building a few pusher Jets myself recently so this is really cool to see.

 

[cvdmaverick]

I got all my servos and linkages installed and my reciever is in place.

 

[cvdmaverick]

I applied my first two pieces of poster board. I also weighed it 202g doesn't seem bad.

 

[jh1985]

looks cool. Cant wait to see it finished

 

[97tj-neil]

Looks good, Maverick. Let me know when you are ready to shoot the maiden video.

 

[cvdmaverick]

Got some more work done today. I have a 30amp esc in place and a cavity the right size for a 1300 3s.

 

[cvdmaverick]

I haven't posted any pics in a few days but I have attached my motor of choice and added leads for it. I also test flew it and at first it rolled to the left violently but after I trimmed that out it flew but it flew tail heavy and I ended up crashing it. However it shouldn't be a hard fix some glue/tape should do the job. After I tweak it some more I could make plans if there was enough interest.