seaplane scratchbuild

[Pilot-294]

looking into designing and building a seaplane. i have some sketches and ideas to do it, but im still debating how to go about it. im working off a design that is heavily based on the plane from the movie porco rosso. i have some sketches in the working and i dont want it to be exactly like the one from the movie but similar idea. basically its a long cylindrical fuselage, strut-mounted high wing above the aft section of the nose and a pod style engine above the wing. i want to do about a 4-5' wing with 3.5-4' fuselage if its the 4' wing. longer for the 5'. i want to use blue foam as a base, with balsa ribs in strategic locations and spars in both the sides and bottom of the fuse. ill use most likely copper tubes for all struts and piano or guitar string for the strut bracing. i was thinking about a 500 class sport motor for the engine and a 2200-3000 mah batt. my biggest concern is where the wing is mounted. when i redesigned it the way i wanted the nose seemed to be terribly short and im worried about the cg being too far foreword to be stable and a good flier. i also want to use fiberglass for the skin (very thin) for the fact of being well waterproofed. ill post pics of my sketches tonight.

 

[earthsciteach]

Sounds very interesting. You may get some inspiration here: http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30435

 

[MrClean]

Well it's not a seaplane per say, but you can have a lot of fun with a Snowball! Warning, picture intensive link to RCGroups.


This is basically a Nutball with built in floats. They're awesome. They Float. They work great on snow. They work great on grass for that matter.

 

[bicyclemonkey]

Can't go wrong with a puddle twin...look how smooth this thing flies!

 

[Pilot-294]

well i do like the ideas but im stuck on this one for now. im gona advance my drawings to the next level here in a day or two and start finalizing design. the strut mounted wing design is the one im going with so far. the more complicated drawing started as a random doodle that branched into an i should make one idea lol.


time to get this thing rolling. may start buying parts soon.

 

[earthsciteach]

That is an awesome looking airplane, Jesse!

 

[PaulT]

Looking at your sketch's reminds me of the Grumman Goose

 

[lonewolf7717]

Had to look up Porco Rosso to know what you were referring to and can see the draw. I do have to ask though, why so big? Why not give it a try a little smaller considering it is an unproven fiction based craft? Hey if you like large scale I totally get it but why not give the design a go with a slightly smaller faster built model. If successful move on to the 5' span.

 

[lonewolf7717]

Have for some time wanted to tackle a Talespin "Sea Duck"....maintaining as much of the cartoony proportions as possible. Hope you see this through man, would love to see an original scratchbuilt seaplane such as your are proposing.

 

[KKArioKA]

Check the Polaris !