which was designed to be a fast to build replacement for Spits and Hurris if attrition thinned the number of British
fighters during the battle of Britain below the number needed for a defensive force. It is 32" span, weighs 14 ounces
adn is powered by a Torque 34T motor running on a Dymond Modelsports 2 Cell Lithium Polymer 1,350Mah battery.
The rudder, stab and elevator are made from 3/32"
light balsa. Using the previously created templates
draw out your shapes onto the balsa. Mark the
horizontal stab center line on the wood and mark
the hinge line. Before cutting the hinge line cut a
slot for the elevator joiner and glue it into place on
three sides, leave the front side un-glued then cut
it apart along the front of the stab joiner.
A 1/8" birch ply nose ring is not mandatory but it
does add considerable strength to the front of the
fusleage. if you are using an outrunner motor use
the shape of th motor to trace out the nose ring.
Cut it out from ply, then drill out the center for the
motor. Shown at the far right is the method I use to
mount the www.customCDR.com motor to the plane.
Using your carboard templates trace out your
shapes onto 2 inch foam. The wing tip should
be squared off for now and rounded after the
airfoil cutting is completed. The fuselage is
marked with the thrustline and cut to the edges
of the tracing on a bandsaw. Once the side
view profile is cut you can then taper the
fuselage sides from the canopy back to the tail
post on the bandsaw. Remove 1/2" on each
side at the rear.
The wing blanks are cut with a hot wire cutter to
the rough size and shape of the finished wing.
Once the wing cores are made up you can
move onto cutting the airfoils
Shown on the right is my Tekoa FeatherCut System which is composed of the
cutting bow; weight driven pulley system to pull bow through the foam, and the
Thermal Generator Power Supply. A complete Feathercut system is $300-$350
and will last many years and hundreds of wings; a less expensive do it your self
system can be found on the Techniques Page of this web site.
The lower photo shows the upper surface wing tip template in place and the
wire cutting along its guide. Notice that the template has had a pencil rubbed
across its surface so that the graphite of the lead will lessen the friction of the
bow on the template. The secret to getting good cuts is to use the lowest
amount of heat possible and to have the wire travel faster over the root rib than
the tip so that it exits the trailing edge at the same time at both the root and the
tip.
Click here for Part 4, Assembly and Finish
