Where it all began!
 

While debating on what to do during these cold days of this most over exaggerated of seasons (and since I no longer have any exams or coursework to keep me busy whoo) I decided to make the Wright Flyer... where it all began.

Its made from a balsa wood Guillows kit but I do plan on making some modification to give it moveable surfaces etc...

So here it is day 1 of the build.

http://s5.postimage.org/dp87o4vxz/IMG_0093.jpg
The lower wing almost complete.

http://s5.postimage.org/fwcgc2187/IMG_0094.jpg
Upper wing almost there as well.

So far its been quite fun, never made one of these before (okay okay, I did have a pop at a guillows Fw190 a few years back but I was too impatient and ended up forgetting about it until the fuselage turned up in pieces) and its been quite a few years since I made a model.

P.S. Before any of you get the notion of going into an argument over "who really was the first to make heavier than air flight" please do it in your own thread, you know who you are you thread hijacking colossal ?$&£%! ;) :-P

Impressed with that!

Nice. Good luck with that mate

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8058/00626v.jpg

The most important photograph of the 20th. Century IMHO.

I wish I had a link to share right now, but I don't... Anyway, a few years back I did some research into exactly how the Flyer's engine was built. Amazing stuff. It was mostly iron, not steel. The only real metal working tool used was a drill press. They decided on a four cylinder engine because that would mean a flat crankshaft, so the crankshaft could be chain-drilled out a single sheet of iron.

well done man! Keep up the good work and keep us updated! Nothing better than some healthy glue sniffing in this time of the year :mrgreen: ;)

lol, yeah its given me a headace.. I am going to for a cigarette, if I don't post an update tomorrow its because the spark from the lighter caused the fumes to catch fire :( :-P

Did it say what mechanism they used to cont-rotate the second prop as I am still looking for some data on it?

The left chain (when viewed from the rear) gets flipped halfway around.

See how the tubes that the chain goes through cross:
http://www.wright-brothers.org/Adven...es/Cockpit.JPG

Impressive! Keep us updated as your progress.

I've seen an original engine of the Wright's brother, the no. 2 I believe, in the Italian museum of Vigna di Valle. An Italian customer bought in 1909 a Wright's plane built in France, the number 4. With it, Orville Wright did the first Italian flight close to Rome, in front of an enormous crowd who went crazy, and trained the first Italian pilot, Mario Calderara, who got the pilot's license no. 1.

http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/mus...tN%c2%b04.aspx

Ins

I believe that one is a replica, but the original in front of it is genuine and still running.

The Spad a few steps to the right is the one I worked on years ago :-)

Nice one Stern! "The oldest Spad remaining in the world, Sep 1916. It belonged to the Italian ace Principe Ruffo di Calabria (father of the Belgian queen, iirc), 20 kills."
Ruffo di Calabria was a close friend of the greatest Italian WWI ace, Francesco Baracca, to whom Ferrari owes its symbol of the "cheval cabré", donated by the mother of Baracca to Enzo Ferrari ... a little bit of Italian history ...

Stern tell us more of the Spad restoration ... :-)

Yup. With a chain of that length crossing it in a figure of 8 pattern would be easy.

LOL I was expecting some sort of complex mechanism :D, thanks for that BMCha.

Okay quick update.. I have been busy with other stuff and I have only being cleaning up what i already have done and added the string trailing edge which was a complete ????? to do.

Tomorrow I plan on getting the tissue/skin on the lower wing.

That's awesome Krupi!

Keep us updated with pics of your progress..

Update 2.

I have started to tissue the lower skin.

http://s5.postimage.org/tper758s7/IMG_0095.jpg
This process is very slow, I don't want to mess it up.

While that dries I have begun the tiresome process of fitting the string trailing edge to the upper wing.

http://s5.postimage.org/47wcnjr1z/IMG_0096.jpg
I have been trying to put a slight crescent shape in each rib bay rather than have the trailing edge taught, this has slowed the process down some what.

Once I have the wings done it will be time to figure out how I will go about making the surfaces moveable. I currently have an idea for the rudder and wing warp (they moved together) but I can see the elevator being a problem :(.

You should post this at the RoF forum as well Krupi!

Good idea, will do :D

Update 3

So for the first time ever I have attempted to tissue/skin :|

Its bloody finicky :-x

So here is the upper wings skin been attached.

http://s5.postimage.org/dl1j5ek6v/IMG_0097.jpg
Very delicate work.

And this is what it will hopefully look like once the top side has been completed.

http://s5.postimage.org/hiosut707/IMG_0098.jpg
I have misted it already (Misted basically means I have given it a light spraying of water to make it shrunk), you can get a sense of the scale of this beast by comparing it to my hand :cool:.

The trailing edge did not come out as good as I had hoped but it will have to do for the moment, once the upper wing is complete I will be ready to dope them... and no, its not that kind of dope :-P. Like the covering doping is something I haven't don't before and yes this will be my only doping experience ;).

Great work Krupi. Giving me the urge to have a go at this myself.

I love balsa!
 

Ahh yes the vaunted Guillows kits, some of my first balsa models were Guillows:-P hevier the led and stronger then steal (purportionatly lol) they always crashed better then they flew, great stuff but that balsa grade was tuff to make a great flyer hehe:cool:

:lol:

I have been too busy to get started on the other parts ATM and I am still debating what to do about the elevator.

Will have to work on it this weekend.