Inside of engine hatch (above). Rear latches covered with balsa boxes and aluminum tape to protect them from turbine exhaust heat. Detail (at right) of the main landing gear pod, retract and wheel with brakes.
rigidity. Cut the air inlet hole and glue on the engine support inlets with epoxy. Add the engine support leading and trailing edge foam blocks, carve and sand to shape. Cut holes in the engine hatch and glue in the engine pods. Ensure that the pods are tilted at the correct angle and aligned prop- erly along the thrust centerline. If mis- aligned, they may create unwanted side forces, cause trim problems, and potentially break off in flight.
Wing
I cut the wing cores from white EPS foam. Ensure that you set the appropriate amount of wash-out at the tips when cutting the cores. The trailing edge of the wing tip tem- plate should be raised higher, relative to the centerline of the root airfoil. To make things easier to handle, I cut the cores in three separate 24-inch sections. The center sec- tion has a constant chord while both tip pan- els taper.
Cut holes for servo wiring and the retract/ brake tubing using a brass tube with its end sharpened. Mark and cut the center section apart to allow for the ribs and spars. Num- ber the foam sections so that they can be glued back into their proper positions. Glue in the ribs and spars and put the as- sembly back into the original core cradles to maintain alignment while the glue cures. Do the same for the tip panels when attaching the spars. Glue the landing gear plates to the notches in the center section ribs and re- inforce with heavy fiberglass on the inside. Add the balsa sub-leading/trailing edges and trim to the foam core shape. Inlay balsa support blocks into the core at the wing bolt locations. Sheet the top and bottom of each core with balsa. Add leading/trailing edge outer strips and shape to airfoil outline. Cut out the ailerons and face the exposed surfaces on the wing and aileron with balsa. Note that the aileron face at the hinge line is tapered. Inlay the plywood control horn mounting plates to the ailerons. They should be flush with the aileron surface. Cut
FLYING MODELS
out aileron servo holes and add servo mounting blocks. The wing tips are made from pink foam. Glue on oversized pieces of foam for the tips, shape with sandpaper and cover with fiberglass.
Cut the cheater holes and line the insides with sheet balsa. Glue on the wing locating tongue. Align the wing center section in the fuselage wing saddle and make any adjust- ments so the wing sits properly. Tap the fuselage plate for the wing retention screws. Finally, join the wing tip panels to the cen- ter section with the correct dihedral at each tip. Reinforce the wing joints with heavy
fiberglass cloth wrapped chord-wise around the wing. Trial fit the main gear and cut the lower surface sheeting, spar cutouts and leading edge to allow the main gear to retract. The landing gear nacelles are constructed simi- larly to the wing tips. Glue on oversized pieces of foam, shape with sandpaper and cover with fiberglass.
This concludes Part I of the A-10 construc- tion. Next month, we will continue with con- struction of the tail surfaces, turbine thrust tube, equipment installation and finally fly- ing the A-10.
PHOTO: JESSICA LOUIE Wallace with the completed A-10 ready for its first shake down test flight. 31
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