My what a big wiener you have!

WINGing it 1.2

This weekend I continued to work on the four wing sections that I have been building. All, four sections are 75% complete. I had A LOT of help from my very supportive girlfriend and on Sunday, one of my teammates, Seth, came over to help me. We cut and glued up all the trailing edges of the wings, cut out the leading edge portions of the ribs out of foam then glued and nailed them into place. Holes were cut out of the cardboard on the trailing edge to help reduce weight; the center rib sections were topped with a strip of cardboard and the top part of the leading edge ribs have been covered with cardboard strips.

I'm WINGing It!

This weekend was not as productive as I would have liked due to a few necessary distractions. The first distraction was for some inspiration. I had to go see The Dark Knight, which by the way was awesome and the second was to celebrate my girlfriends birthday which brought a big smile to her face. Anyway,  back to the Red Hot Flyer II, I am 90% finished with the 4 wing struts. I spent time reenforcing then with foam and added blocking for wire bracing if needed. I have also moved on to building the first wing section. There are 6 main wing sections and 4 wing tips making up about 55 feet of wing length. After all it is a biplane.

Gettin' Jiggy With it!

So last night, and trip number two to The Home Depot, I purchased a new jig saw, flush router bit and some MDF. I had actually bought a Black & Decker jig saw the day before because it was cheep and they didn't seem to have the DeWalt one I wanted . After testing it out I really didn't like it but, to my surprise I found the one I wanted  in a product display and it was on sale for only $5 more then the B&D one. It works so much better! It's so smooth. Anyway, last night I made a jig to cut out the plywood support ribs for my wins. I was able to get the jig built and over a dozen ribs cut. Tonight I hope to get the rest of them cut. 

It has begun!

Today was the inaugural trip to The Home Depot to buy supplies to start building the Red Hot Flyer II. It is one of many trips that will happen over the next month and a half. My initial focus is going to be on building the wings. Since the Red Hot Flyer 2 is a Bi-Plane things are going to be a little bit more complicated. I have a general idea of how I am going to build it but it's mostly in my head. I have however, drawn out my airfoil design and am now trying to figure out how I'm going to cut out 70+ ribs so that they are all the same. I also started cutting all the spars for the wings. I think I have a good start even though I didn't get a ton of work done today. The wings should start coming together pretty quickly over the next week or so.