The fuselage assembly began by first bending the sides and bottom (above left) at the former locations, and then gluing the three internal formers in place. The second side (above right) is glued in place and the top front sheet added to aid
in aligning the assembly. The tail is pulled together and clamped while the glue sets up. The top middle sheet (below, at left) is formed to the airfoil curvature, and it and the rear top sheets are glued in place, followed by the bottom sheet.
The side and bottom pieces were bent slight- ly at the former locations and the sides joined at Formers 2 and 3. Former 1 went in next, and then the tail was pulled together and glued. From there the top and bottom pieces were glued in place. Part WC was formed to the airfoil shape by rolling it over a large wooden dowel to form the basic cur- vature, and then glued in place and secured with pins while the glue dried.
The vertical and horizontal tails were glued together next, and then it was on to the wings. The curvature of the airfoil was worked into the panels, again using the wood dowel to form the curve, and the root rib glued in place and secured with straight pins till the glue set up.
The tail assembly was glued in place on the fuselage, and then the wings were aligned using a calibrated eyeball and glued in place with glue bottles used to keep the tips propped up to the proper height while the glue dried overnight. Are we high tech around here or what?
The bottom sheeting is aligned and glued in place (above). The sheet keys to the internal formers insuring proper alignment. The wings are curved to conform to the airfoil shape (at right) at the root using a wood dowel. The ribs are glued in place to hold the curve, and also provide added glue surface to attach the wings to the fuselage.
FLYING MODELS 33
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