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  1. #1
    cluttonfred's Avatar
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    Simplest welded steel fuselage?

    Just out of curiosity, if I were to decide to tackle a homebuilt design with a welded 4130 steel tube fuselage, what is the most dead simple one out there? What is the Volksplane of welded designs?
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    The Wag-Aero sport trainer.... basically a J-3 replica

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    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    I'd say Pober Pixie....

    Ron Wanttaja

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    Don Stewart Headwind. Or any other three longeron "razorback" design.

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    Quote Originally Posted by martymayes View Post
    Don Stewart Headwind. Or any other three longeron "razorback" design.
    That's what I was thinking. Clearly a brilliant post by Marty. ;-)

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    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by martymayes View Post
    Don Stewart Headwind. Or any other three longeron "razorback" design.
    Ahhh, good point. How about the Team Airbike?

    Ron Wanttaja

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    Quote Originally Posted by martymayes View Post
    Don Stewart Headwind. Or any other three longeron "razorback" design.

    There may be less tubing in a three longeron design, but I don't believe it is easier to build. With a traditional four longeron "box", you can build both sides flat on a table or floor, and join them with equal length top/bottom cross members at each station using a simple carpenter's square to keep the sides vertical. With three longerons, you are going to be designing and building a welding jig to keep the upper longeron in the right position. This is a lesson a whole lot of old rubber powered free flight model builders like myself have learned the hard way !
    Last edited by Victor Bravo; 03-12-2013 at 04:45 PM.

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    Sam Buchanan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Bravo View Post
    There may be less tubing in a three longeron design, but I don't believe it is easier to build. With a traditional four longeron "box", you can build both sides flat on a table or floor, and join them with equal length top/bottom cross members at each station using a simple carpenter's square to keep the sides vertical. With three longerons, you are going to be designing and building a welding jig to keep the upper longeron in the right position. This is a lesson a whole lot of old rubber powered free flight model builders like myself have learned the hard way !
    Too much thinking going on.

    A three longeron fuse is very simple to build. As far as welding jigs go, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood:

    Name:  fuse-16.jpg
Views: 7600
Size:  75.8 KB

    Anyone contemplating building an airplane should be able to build that "jig".
    Last edited by Sam Buchanan; 03-12-2013 at 08:05 PM.
    Sam Buchanan
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    hogheadv2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan View Post
    Too much thinking going on.

    A three longeron fuse is very simple to build. As far as welding jigs go, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood:

    Name:  fuse-16.jpg
Views: 7600
Size:  75.8 KB

    Anyone contemplating building an airplane should be able to build that "jig".
    I spent over 4 hours basking in the knowledge of Don Stewart today (and sunshine) I bought a set of "Headwind" plans just to have, so many of the details could transfer to a design of my own. Don has a great history of flying and design. He showed me ---- a couple hours worth of cad drawings, Simple, strong, low cost and time seem like why he spend endless hours on the drawings. [Just got home, was over a 600 mile day, will unroll the stack to study this weekend] I crawled in and around his Perfect Plane,,,, The "265" no he will not sell plans for that. {The first thing someone said was he wanted to put a big engine in it}

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Bravo View Post
    There may be less tubing in a three longeron design, but I don't believe it is easier to build. With a traditional four longeron "box", you can build both sides flat on a table or floor, and join them with equal length top/bottom cross members at each station using a simple carpenter's square to keep the sides vertical. With three longerons, you are going to be designing and building a welding jig to keep the upper longeron in the right position. This is a lesson a whole lot of old rubber powered free flight model builders like myself have learned the hard way !
    I am interested in the" build the sides first" opinion,I have set of Hatz plans and intend to build top then bottom.Without sidetracking this thread to much some input would be good as a person who is about to start as well as Cluttonfred would benefit from all opinions. Cheers Ross

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