Sioux Bipe Contest Build

[FlyingTyger]

Willy Nillies has been hosting a wing kit build contest yearly. Here is a link to the announcement on their Facebook group: Linky
You may need to be a member of the group to view, but basically, the idea is to build a design of your own or a modified kit using at minimum 3 original WN ribs. The finished plane must be under 250g and you must provide proof of flight.

For this year's entry, I decided to build a biplane version of the Sioux. The inspiration coming from this random vintage RC image I found Pinterest.

 

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First thing to figure out is the placement of the bottom wing. I drew a centerline on my bench then started sketching things out.

With the wing cutout in place, I now had to relocate the servo tray since they would've interfered with the bottom wing.

Once I decided where everything fit, I glued in some coffee stirrers so I could remove the wire rods until after covering.

 

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With the internals figured out, the top of the fuse was sheeted.

Now the fuse sits until I have wings.

 

[FlyingTyger]

Wings!
I framed up the first wing half but realized that I had to make another decision before going much further.

Bottom wing span. Should it match the top or be a bit shorter?

I ultimately decided to do both wings at full span and got all four panels framed up.

Jigged for dihedral, then top sheeting applied.