Earthchill
Member
I’ve had many projects going on at the same time lately, so I’ve been reluctant to build a new airplane. But then my wife found Torben Kuhlmann’s book “Lindbergh - Die abenteuerliche Geschichte einer fliegenden Maus” in our local library. Both me and my son really liked it. In the inside of the cover there are side and front view sketches of the plane the mouse protagonist flies across the Atlantic. I couldn’t resist building it.
I know from his book Edison that the sketches aren’t always in balance. A battery at any other position than the keel will make a submarine extremely hard to balance. The wings of the mouse’s plane end right at the forward end of the plane so I was a bit worried that a balanced center of gravity would be more or less impossible to achieve in this craft as well. But the wings also have a quite unusual shape (at least to me) so I decided to start with a chuck glider.
The chuck glider flew as well as any chuck glider I’ve tried, and the best center of gravity was at about 40% of the wing chord. This seems buildable with the battery underneath the powerpack and the servos right behind the power pack. Thankfully, the fuselage is very high at the nose.
The next step will be to scale up the plans and make careful considerations for both fitting the electronics and making it possible to switch battery without a sharp knife and hot glue. Ideally I want to be able to move the powerpack between the Tiny Trainer and this plane.
If you have kids I highly recommend buying Torben Kuhlmann’s the paintings are amazing and the stories encouraging.
I know from his book Edison that the sketches aren’t always in balance. A battery at any other position than the keel will make a submarine extremely hard to balance. The wings of the mouse’s plane end right at the forward end of the plane so I was a bit worried that a balanced center of gravity would be more or less impossible to achieve in this craft as well. But the wings also have a quite unusual shape (at least to me) so I decided to start with a chuck glider.
The chuck glider flew as well as any chuck glider I’ve tried, and the best center of gravity was at about 40% of the wing chord. This seems buildable with the battery underneath the powerpack and the servos right behind the power pack. Thankfully, the fuselage is very high at the nose.
The next step will be to scale up the plans and make careful considerations for both fitting the electronics and making it possible to switch battery without a sharp knife and hot glue. Ideally I want to be able to move the powerpack between the Tiny Trainer and this plane.
If you have kids I highly recommend buying Torben Kuhlmann’s the paintings are amazing and the stories encouraging.