telnar1236
Elite member
The fuselage is now partially assembled and the ribs for the wings have now been cut. This is the first attempt I am making to use the laser cutter to manufacture something that could not practically be made by hand. The thickness of some of the parts of the ribs is less than 1mm. Despite this, the ribs are quite strong in the axes in which they need to support a load. I have also added geodetic ribs to the original structure to increase torsional stiffness and help ensure the airfoil is easy to cover. The fuselage now has the alignment jig for the nose integrated into it's structure. This speeds construction and provides a better mounting point for the nose gear. The shape is also slightly changed to improve appearance. I changed the routing for the stringers so that the main load bearing ones would follow a more straight path to reduce the chance of buckling, although the thinner stringers meant to support the skin still follow curved paths to achieve the correct contours. It may not look like much now, but the result is a much neater fuselage.