Saturday 20 August 2011

Lets make a simple air-frame from polyester resin


I've been experimenting with plastic for radio controlled air-frames and they've been quite good, save for when you crash it and have to rework an entire section. So I decided to look around and see what composite materials are available to me. It was interesting to find fiberglass and more importantly polyester resign. So I decided to get the resign and skip the fiberglass for cost optimization reasons (I know,I know a euphemism). For the material to be hardened I went for good old fabric! But I need a frame to support the fabric, so once more I made a plastic air-frame and covered it with the fabric. Then I applied the fiber glass and, well, lets see...
First, I needed a set of wings and a fuselage. Using light enough plastic, I whipped up some wings and a simple fuselage using soda bottles and flexible plastic sheet. Below I am also making provisions for the brusjless outrunner that will propel the RC plane.


To make things interesting, I decided to make the wings delta, and use a front canard, like on Burt Rutan's design (the man's a genius)

Crude as it looks above, it worked out well in the end

Here's a better pic at the delta wing

Now I added the front canard and were ready for the canvas

Doesn't look too promising, but give it a chance....

On the next blog, the resign application, sanding, and spray painting, then attach the rudder. Stay tuned