contact at EAA to help with building a P-51 Mustang project
I have a group of teens I work with every week at the St. Louis Science Center. I am a longtime wooden boatbuilder. I have recently, because of Covid furloughs, become manager of the Aerospace group as well as my Engineering group (robotics and a makerspace).
The YES program is mainly made up of Black teens. Once we are able to meet, I wanted a project that would allow us to socially distance a bit easier than with 18" square robots, so I thought that building a replica of the Tuskegee Airmen's P-51 Mustang might be a worthwhile project. Because of working with wood for many years, the construction of a spruce & birch ply P-51 does not seem overwhelming. I've purchased the plans for the Falconar SAL Mustang, also called the 2/3 Mustang. The SAL P-51D Mustang is a Canadian designed amateur-built aircraft, produced by Falconar Avia and introduced in 1969. The aircraft is a 2⁄3 scale replica of the North American P-51 Mustang and is supplied as plans for amateur construction by Manna Aviation in Australia.
I've put together an online Google Classroom course as a lead in to when we can meet in person to start construction (in a month or so, I hope!). In the meantime, the teens will build the stick & tissue Guillows model P-51 at home in preparation, study measurement, how to read and draw plans, and learn some basics about aircraft construction. As this will be just a display for the Science Center, we won't be powering it or making many of the moving pieces of it actually move. This should cut down the build time to a manageable period.
We plan to hang it from the ceiling of Boeing Hall at the Science Center, maybe half of it covered and the other half left open so the public can see the "skeleton," as with our dinosaurs.
I tried a number of times to contact Tim Hoversten who was suggested (in an online chat on the site) as a good contact for some help from EAA, but I received no replies. Whom can I contact who can help with, among other things, (1) getting permission to share EAA videos with my teens, while we are still virtual, in preparation for starting our build, and (2) any other ways in which EAA can help us with our project?
stay safe!
Bill
