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- Jan 27, 2009
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I had some recycled servos and a receiver and was looking for something to make today, and I remembered the posting about the upscale wolverine I just saw. I decided with some tweaks maybe I could make something that would glide that would capture the spirit of that model that I really liked as a kid. The original was extremely long and would never fly as an aircraft so I'd have to upscale the wings and tail which makes it look a little more proportional.
I decided on 2.6 inch tubing and a PNC 80k nose cone. I cut off about 3 and 1/2 in of the nose cone and inserted a round foam plate from the inside about an eighth of an inch from the front end of the rear portion of the cone and then trimmed off another inch off the tip of the nose cone and glued it onto the plate to give it the right ramjet look.
Then I played around in openrocket with a wing shape that gave the right look but that was large enough to have a light wing loading and did the same with the tail, given the CG I'd need for glide/boost I played around moving the wing forward and adjusting the length of the body tube and placement of the electronics till I came out with something that looked like it might work and balance okay.
I cut the wing as a single piece from 9mm depron and used double 2.5 mm carbon spars top and bottom about 20% back from the leading edge, glued and taped, and then slotted the body tube for the wing and tail. I offset the motor mount slightly above center to compensate for the drag of the tail. The motor tube glues into a slot in the vertical stab tab.
I cut and slotted the small 6 mm depron canards ahead of the wing and attached the 6 mm depron elevons to the wing once it was glued into place along with the vertical stab.
I cut a small hatch in the bottom rear of the body tube so I could connect the very short servo wires and also mount the receiver to the motor mount from the inside. The rear of the tube is open so I can simply connect the battery to the receiver wire and stick it to velcro on the other side of the motor mount without cutting a hatch on the other side.
I offset the rail buttons about 45° from the bottom so that they don't hit the ground when landing.
I used Jim Z's site to print out the cockpit template with a 2.6 x scale and printed that on the back of photo paper and cut it out and glued it to the nose cone.
I checked the balance and it was a little bit nose heavy so I trimmed off one and 3/8 in from the end of the body tube and re checked.
It all came out at 10.3 Oz ready to fly with a long burn 24 mm e6 motor and battery and balancing just slightly nose heavy.
I'll try to give it a test flight tomorrow, then hand cut some vinyl trim to match the original decals
I decided on 2.6 inch tubing and a PNC 80k nose cone. I cut off about 3 and 1/2 in of the nose cone and inserted a round foam plate from the inside about an eighth of an inch from the front end of the rear portion of the cone and then trimmed off another inch off the tip of the nose cone and glued it onto the plate to give it the right ramjet look.
Then I played around in openrocket with a wing shape that gave the right look but that was large enough to have a light wing loading and did the same with the tail, given the CG I'd need for glide/boost I played around moving the wing forward and adjusting the length of the body tube and placement of the electronics till I came out with something that looked like it might work and balance okay.
I cut the wing as a single piece from 9mm depron and used double 2.5 mm carbon spars top and bottom about 20% back from the leading edge, glued and taped, and then slotted the body tube for the wing and tail. I offset the motor mount slightly above center to compensate for the drag of the tail. The motor tube glues into a slot in the vertical stab tab.
I cut and slotted the small 6 mm depron canards ahead of the wing and attached the 6 mm depron elevons to the wing once it was glued into place along with the vertical stab.
I cut a small hatch in the bottom rear of the body tube so I could connect the very short servo wires and also mount the receiver to the motor mount from the inside. The rear of the tube is open so I can simply connect the battery to the receiver wire and stick it to velcro on the other side of the motor mount without cutting a hatch on the other side.
I offset the rail buttons about 45° from the bottom so that they don't hit the ground when landing.
I used Jim Z's site to print out the cockpit template with a 2.6 x scale and printed that on the back of photo paper and cut it out and glued it to the nose cone.
I checked the balance and it was a little bit nose heavy so I trimmed off one and 3/8 in from the end of the body tube and re checked.
It all came out at 10.3 Oz ready to fly with a long burn 24 mm e6 motor and battery and balancing just slightly nose heavy.
I'll try to give it a test flight tomorrow, then hand cut some vinyl trim to match the original decals
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