a good wood project for teen builders

[bstanard]

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).

I'm looking for a long-term project in which I can combine the two components and build a full scale aircraft of wood, not to fly but to display, hung from the ceiling in the main building. Where should I look for advice on an appropriate build?

We have a number of companies in town who may help with the funding if it is an interesting build. As most of my teens are African-American, I thought of the Tuskegee Airmen and their planes: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Bell P-39 Airacobras, Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and the North American P-51 Mustang.

Any suggestions?

Bill Stanard

[rwanttaja]

Everyone here is no doubt rolling their eyes, but I am going to recommend the Bowers Fly Baby.


It's a classic wood airplane, designed to be built in a typical garage with table saw and band saw. Over 500 have been built since 1960.

Even better, EAA makes the instructions for building the plane available for free, to members. The designer wrote a 14-part series, published in EAA's Sport Aviation magazine, on how to build the airplane. A few years later, EAA combined the articles into a single book...and you can now download the entire book for free if you're an EAA member.

Go to:

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-bui...d---g/fly-baby

...and you'll see the link to download the book.

In addition, the Fly Baby community has put together a series of guides on how to use the articles/book to build a Fly Baby. You can access this information, for free, at:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/PB100/index.html

There are several Fly Baby owners in the St. Louis area, and I'm sure they'd love to show their airplanes to your students.

One of the neat things about the Fly Baby is that cosmetic changes, to make it look like other aircraft, are fairly simple. The May 2018th issue of SPORT AVIATION had an article about Richard Borgerding's Fly Baby, which has a canopy and a raised turtledeck.

Right from the start, this looked to be a good layout for a fake P-40. One could be painted like the original Tuskegee Airmen P-40s, or a "Red Tails" paint job could be applied.


Ron Wanttaja

[Samuel]

Pietenpol!

[Sam Buchanan]

Minimax, easy to build either by plans or with kits.

https://www.teammini-max.com/

[bstanard]

Thanks so much, Ron... what a great place to start my search. I especially like the idea that we adopt the "red tail" of the later P-40s or the paint scheme of the original. That would be a wonderful choice for the teens to make! The fact that there is so much material in support of the build is another plus. My first wooden boat build was supported by a great book that had been assembled from a series of articles. Boy, do pictures help focus one's vision!

I assume I would find local Fly Baby owners through the bowersflybaby.com website, right?

Samuel, I have been devouring the many Pietenpol videos, and I was yesterday in touch with Andrew Pietenpol via phone chatting about the instruction manual. Thanks for reinforcing my good vibes about Pietenpols.

Sam, Thanks for the pointer toward the MiniMax designs. I'll add them to my list.

[rwanttaja]

I assume I would find local Fly Baby owners through the bowersflybaby.com website, right?

Email me at ron@wanttaja.com; I can put you in touch with some.

I'll ping the guys on the mailing list and Facebook page. Got one volunteer for you, already.

Ron Wanttaja