Bought an Airplane.

[TeePee]

A very little update. The good news is I found my camera. The bad is I haven't found the cable. So more phone pictures I am afraid.

Not much excitement really. I have been replacing the skins on the elevator and horizontal stabilizer, which had been built by the original builder and had been damaged at some point in the last 20 years. I was able to find replacement skins from a nice chap in Canada.





Much the same structure as the rudder, but the Horizontal has a lot more reinforcement in there for strength. The completed part is about eight feet long, and I had to be very careful moving it about the house as I didn't want to take chunks out of the wall. It's now resting in my front room, with the wings and rudder. I like to call it 'The Lifting Surfaces Room'.

Now it's on to the Fuselage!

[TheAnimus]

Ah yes, the classic hellboy look.

[Stoo]

And I thought I was going to get comments about the garden...

For that, there actually has to be a garden...

Looking great though chap, it might actually inspire me to pull my finger out and complete some of my own half-built projects! (Nothing as cool as a plane though!)

[vicar]

I am enjoying this, can't to see the finished product.

[Pob255]

At first glance I though you'd just bought the cockpit and where going to turn it into a sim rig.

This is one heck of a project, keep at it.

PS you so should of strung that 2by4 bit out for a few posts.

[TeePee]

Been a while since the last update:

First thing on the fuselage was adding all of the pulleys which should have gone in there before it was riveted together. It was a real pain getting to them.



Then working on the control systems. The side sticks have a very intricate set of linkages.



Here the side panels are cleco'd on to drill the holes for some brackets.



Then the reason for no updates. This pile of junk showed up in February:



It's used landing gear from another aircraft. I've been working on overhauling it all, which doesn't really make for compelling viewing. Lots of cleaning, sandblasting and paint stripping. Those are the 4's I'll be rolling on. I picked this up for an insanely cheap price. I also found a canopy and exhaust, which are the main parts of a finishing kit which the factory sold for $17K. I spent less than $3k.

I'm back to work on the controls now, and am working on redesigning and strengthening some parts.

[Dooms]

Awesome mate, looking forward to seeing how you finish her off in the coming months/years

[Maboof]

looking forward to more updates, been following your thread for what seems to be a year now

[TeePee]

I've made a lot of progress! Honest!

There was a lot of small details that needed to be done. I bought a lathe so that I could make a lot of small parts for mounting the controls.



The larger parts pictured hold small bearings for the rudder pedals. The pedals themselves are attached to columns which rotate, and I found some steel replacements for the original kit parts that are much stronger. The smaller parts are for a linkage between the two sides.



I made a new linkage with a fitting for a rod end that will be a lot stronger than the original.



Here it is mounted with another component I made on the lathe. The larger tube contains a spring which creates resistance to pedal motion. The large tube is held in place by the linear actuator, and pressing a pedal will move the linkage compressing the spring inside. The linear actuator will move the larger outer tube changing the neutral position of the pedals, which will have the effect of trimming the control. It's kind of complicated to explain. The original kit used rotary motors and a separate cartridge, which was prone to failures.

You can also see the brake lines which will connect the two sets of pedals. Each pedal has it's own master cylinder, allowing you to brake each main wheel individually, from either side. There are more lines which run from the bottom of the pedals to the wheels.



Then there's cleaning and painting.



The big milestone. Riveting the side panels to the fuselage. There is a sealer around the edges of the panel which will keep it airtight. This is especially important around the bottom of the fuselage where the exhaust will be.

This takes us up to about August. I'm behind on organising my pictures!

[Jonj1611]

Love watching projects like this, looking forward to seeing more

[ixis]

Holy crap, now that is a real project! Nice bike by the way

[wasabi]

Holy crap, now that is a real project! Nice bike by the way

Anyone who buys Ducati likes mechanical challenges

[razer121]

Missed this thread, glad its poped back up so i can follow what a project!

[TeePee]

Here's a view of the inside of that riveting:



With the center section riveted, the fuselage was fixed into position in the frames. Supports were built for the center fuselage, and to support the nosebowl which will be the front of the fuselage. The large brown piece is a steel template. Everything has to be aligned within a fraction of an inch as I like going in straight lines. There's a plumbline, waterline and a level all at work.



The first of the forward frames is assembled with part of the engine mounting system.



This is then clamped into place.

[TeePee]

With the forward frames in place, the lower skin can be clamped around them and permanently attached with blue painters tape.



The hole for the nose gear well is roughly cut out to help with positioning.



It's then drilled for rivets to the frames. Then everything is dismantled.



Cleaned and painted.



And riveted together. Most of this was done with the template in place, but it had to be removed for access.

[rox0r]

I'm not seeing any gun mounts. There will be guns right? Right?