For a while i have been wanting to build a guinea pig. At some point after reading about a possible FliteFest west just a couple hours from my side of the county, I decided to go large and started playing around with different size increases in inkscape. 191%, it turns out, is exactly the percentage that gets the wing plans to 30". That is when the wing is opened up flat, the distance between the 2 trailing edges is 30". As i began working on it i adjusted this slightly to make things easier but basically its a 190-200% build. The picture below was my original idea, but i decided to just make use of all the foam board, so now its wingspan is 120", not 111".
The construction is going to stick to the flitetest build with the addition of reinforcements and double thick foamboard.
The wingspan is going to be 120" and split into 3 sections for easier transport. Each section is 16.5"x40" and is made up of 4 pieces of foamboard. At this scale i figured it would be easier to just make measurements instead of printout out 100 pages and taping them together. With this mind i have adjusted all my plans so that they round to the nearsest quarter of an inch.
I really am just "winging it" here. Taking things slow and trying to figure out where loads are going to be and how to make things connect up. Double laminated foam board is crazy strong. I am laminating with a thin layer of gorilla glue. This combination makes for a crazy strong bond that adds a ton of strength in all directions. This leads to some fun time when comes to forming the airfoil. It takes almost every heavy object in my office to hold it down to glue.
Again i am following the build pretty much just like you do the regular size. With gorilla glue though you have a lot more time in between applications. But that means you can also setup a ton of glue joints at the same time. The part that actually is taking the longest is just figuring out the cross bars and how the wings will connect into eachother and remain strong. Just like Peters large cargo plane is designed for G's in mostly one type of flying i decided to focus all the strength in the wings to fight them folding upwards. No inverted flight here.
One concern i had initially was because gorilla glue is activated by water. I was afraid it would have a negative impact but it hasnt caused any issues. In fact i have found that the gorilla glue will go thru the paper and get a good hold on the foam. Also, as i know from my epp builds, scratched up metal and gorilla glue become one. Incredible bond. So i got some aluminim pieces to use as the internal structure and glued it to the top and bottom along with some foamboard. Very strong wing so far.
The root chord or distance from leading to trailing edge of the wing is 16.5"
I wanted to have plywood in strategic places to help distribute weight and force. So for instance where the wings will attach to the body, where the motors will be applying force, and where the wings will join. I went with a "use what you have" approach which is why they are somewhat large. In hindsight i am happy with this because this will give me a ton of places to attach hooks and accessories for towing, lights, and whatever crazy stuff we want at flitefest.
Here are the center and right wingtip side by side. This is 80" of the 120" total.
While waiting for some glue to dry i taped up the center wing section. While the wing tips will be mostly hollow with only the internal structure, the center section i am going to fill with expanding foam to help distribute forces.
This will be a slow build. Mostly to give myself time to think and analyze stuff.
Being that this is so huge (HUJ) i decided to keep the removable nose. Even doing this it is still going to be close to 60" from just behind the nose to the tail. I often think of Gibbs on NCIS and how is he going to get his boat out of his basement ha!
The fuselage is mostly to scale but i decided to make the body a little bit taller. The usable storage space, from just behind the nose to the beginning of the door is 13.5x13.5x20.5 inches.
The tail feathers will be removable in a very similar fashion to Peters.
The Ailerons will be the entire length of the wingtip area. So each one will be around 40" x 4-4.25". I am going to have flaperons in the mix to help slow it down.
I am currently finishing the right wingtip and have the wing joining mechanics mostly finished. Just looking at whether a cotter pin setup or maybe some rubber bands will be better/easier.
Will update as i work on it.
The construction is going to stick to the flitetest build with the addition of reinforcements and double thick foamboard.
The wingspan is going to be 120" and split into 3 sections for easier transport. Each section is 16.5"x40" and is made up of 4 pieces of foamboard. At this scale i figured it would be easier to just make measurements instead of printout out 100 pages and taping them together. With this mind i have adjusted all my plans so that they round to the nearsest quarter of an inch.
I really am just "winging it" here. Taking things slow and trying to figure out where loads are going to be and how to make things connect up. Double laminated foam board is crazy strong. I am laminating with a thin layer of gorilla glue. This combination makes for a crazy strong bond that adds a ton of strength in all directions. This leads to some fun time when comes to forming the airfoil. It takes almost every heavy object in my office to hold it down to glue.
Again i am following the build pretty much just like you do the regular size. With gorilla glue though you have a lot more time in between applications. But that means you can also setup a ton of glue joints at the same time. The part that actually is taking the longest is just figuring out the cross bars and how the wings will connect into eachother and remain strong. Just like Peters large cargo plane is designed for G's in mostly one type of flying i decided to focus all the strength in the wings to fight them folding upwards. No inverted flight here.
One concern i had initially was because gorilla glue is activated by water. I was afraid it would have a negative impact but it hasnt caused any issues. In fact i have found that the gorilla glue will go thru the paper and get a good hold on the foam. Also, as i know from my epp builds, scratched up metal and gorilla glue become one. Incredible bond. So i got some aluminim pieces to use as the internal structure and glued it to the top and bottom along with some foamboard. Very strong wing so far.
The root chord or distance from leading to trailing edge of the wing is 16.5"
I wanted to have plywood in strategic places to help distribute weight and force. So for instance where the wings will attach to the body, where the motors will be applying force, and where the wings will join. I went with a "use what you have" approach which is why they are somewhat large. In hindsight i am happy with this because this will give me a ton of places to attach hooks and accessories for towing, lights, and whatever crazy stuff we want at flitefest.
Here are the center and right wingtip side by side. This is 80" of the 120" total.
While waiting for some glue to dry i taped up the center wing section. While the wing tips will be mostly hollow with only the internal structure, the center section i am going to fill with expanding foam to help distribute forces.
This will be a slow build. Mostly to give myself time to think and analyze stuff.
Being that this is so huge (HUJ) i decided to keep the removable nose. Even doing this it is still going to be close to 60" from just behind the nose to the tail. I often think of Gibbs on NCIS and how is he going to get his boat out of his basement ha!
The fuselage is mostly to scale but i decided to make the body a little bit taller. The usable storage space, from just behind the nose to the beginning of the door is 13.5x13.5x20.5 inches.
The tail feathers will be removable in a very similar fashion to Peters.
The Ailerons will be the entire length of the wingtip area. So each one will be around 40" x 4-4.25". I am going to have flaperons in the mix to help slow it down.
I am currently finishing the right wingtip and have the wing joining mechanics mostly finished. Just looking at whether a cotter pin setup or maybe some rubber bands will be better/easier.
Will update as i work on it.
