Fairchild F24-W40

clolsonus

Well-known member
I don't know what I'm getting myself into here, but I'm going to start drawing up a Fairchild F24-W40. I found free plans from the aerofred site so I thought I would trace over the outline for my first go at it.
When I was in jr high I built the Guillows F24 model and it was the first time I ever successfully flew one of my balsa builds. In fact it flew so good it could take off from the ground. It was amazing and exhilarating and everything model airplane building and flying should be! In my adult life I found the kit again, had a great time building it. I'm sure I did a much nicer job, but it didn't quite fly with the same magic that my first one did. I figured more turns of the rubber band == more magic, but then I exploded the rubber band and did some internal damage and so she sits on my shelf to this day. After building the FT Storch, I thought, what fun would it be to build a 200% Fairchild F24, make it electric power and RC and then I'm sure it would fly with 10x the magic it flew with back in the day.
The Guillows version was about 25" wing span (from memory) so this one will be 50" wing span (or as close as the snap to grid + bezier wing tip will let me.) It should be similar size to the simple storch and hopefully fly with the same size motor / battery / servos.
I have roughed in the wing as you can see, but still have a few details to think through. The fuselage will be challenging depending on how much of the original curvature I try to capture. I think I'll try to draw the tail surfaces next. Anyone already done one of these and can save me the work? :)
This is my first attempt at this sort of thing so I make no promises about how far I'll get or what the final result will look like, but if I make any more interesting progress I will post back here.
Thanks for looking!
Curt.
f24-plan.jpg
f24-outline.png
 

FastCrash45

Elite member
I don't know what I'm getting myself into here, but I'm going to start drawing up a Fairchild F24-W40. I found free plans from the aerofred site so I thought I would trace over the outline for my first go at it.
When I was in jr high I built the Guillows F24 model and it was the first time I ever successfully flew one of my balsa builds. In fact it flew so good it could take off from the ground. It was amazing and exhilarating and everything model airplane building and flying should be! In my adult life I found the kit again, had a great time building it. I'm sure I did a much nicer job, but it didn't quite fly with the same magic that my first one did. I figured more turns of the rubber band == more magic, but then I exploded the rubber band and did some internal damage and so she sits on my shelf to this day. After building the FT Storch, I thought, what fun would it be to build a 200% Fairchild F24, make it electric power and RC and then I'm sure it would fly with 10x the magic it flew with back in the day.
The Guillows version was about 25" wing span (from memory) so this one will be 50" wing span (or as close as the snap to grid + bezier wing tip will let me.) It should be similar size to the simple storch and hopefully fly with the same size motor / battery / servos.
I have roughed in the wing as you can see, but still have a few details to think through. The fuselage will be challenging depending on how much of the original curvature I try to capture. I think I'll try to draw the tail surfaces next. Anyone already done one of these and can save me the work? :)
This is my first attempt at this sort of thing so I make no promises about how far I'll get or what the final result will look like, but if I make any more interesting progress I will post back here.
Thanks for looking!
Curt.
View attachment 125417 View attachment 125420
I would say that since you built a couple of the smaller versions you should be able to do any kind of work arounds. FLYABLE is perfection!!
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
Today I walked over to our university maker space lab to check out their laser cutters. They have an 18" x 32" workspace or something like that. I had two ancient warped pieces of original dollar foam board to test with. In the end I got some workable power settings and cut out a left and right wing. The cut quality isn't consistent because I couldn't get my pieces of foam to lay flat in the laser cutter bed, but the proof of concept was there. I took my pieces back to the lab and worked on it long enough to convince myself that I could put a decent full wing together if I started out with some not completely warped foam sheets.
I have the horizontal stab drawn out and ready to cut. I traced the larger version on the plan (so not as scale, but hopefully will have better flight qualities.)
I also have the vertical stab outline drawn up, but I need a couple tweaks on it still (carve a hole for elevator clearance and decide how it will mount to the fuselage.)
I'm still scratching my head on exactly what to do for the fuselage, but I guess I will cross one bridge at a time.
I am thinking about drawing up a 3d printed cowl so I get a nice round/curved nose.
I am trying to find a balance between keeping it simple vs. pushing my boundaries and learning a few new things vs. keeping the project moving forward vs. hopefully having a tidy, straight, nice flying little plane to fly at the end.
I'm shooting for the FB version of this:
Screenshot from 2019-03-04 21-16-08.png
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
Here is a (less than) 60 second youtube clip showing the test cut of my wing design so far. (I know I hat the cut power to high and scorched the back of the material in places. And the foamboard was super warped so I didn't get good consistent cuts, but good enough for a first test cut and to see if I get what I intended to draw up.
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
I cut and built my first wing iteration today. It turned out ok, but not quite as great as I hoped. I have several items I can tweak in the svg file before (if) I try to cut out another one. I'm not quite sure the best way to attack the fuselage. There is some curvature that gives a lot of character to the design that I'd like to somehow capture if I can. Anyway, here's a picture ... slowly but surely ...

20190503_170120.jpg