Current Progress, part 5

Compressing the bungees to install the stop plate on the top of the wing. Those are 2 threaded rods that have been bent in a U shape, supporting a block of wood. The bungees do not need to be compressed very far at all to install the top plate.

Here the rear fuselage it put together. It is amazing how blocky it looks without the tail surfaces! Very simple construction here.

This is the wooden template used to tell how much to bend the upper longerons. The longerons were bent by placing the extrusion over a 1' circle of particle board and pressing down, hard, on both sides. This was repeated about every 1" along the longeron for the curved portion. Unfortunately this also induces a large undesired curvature in the longeron at 90 degrees to the desired curve. This was removed by placing the longeron over a table corner and pressing down every 1" to straighten that out, which of course reduces some of the desired curvature... it took maybe 8 times going back and forth to make the longeron fit the template. Less than 1 hours work, however.

Here the rear fuselage, center wing and firewall are held together by the upper longerons.

Looking forward over the seat panel towards the instrument panel. The firewall can be seen at the very top of the picture. The baggage compartment floor is visible at the bottom of the picture.

For more construction photos click here.

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