Wings are covered, belly was fibreglassed. Technically, if I wanted to, I could attempt a flight at this stage. But I think I’ll take my time and finish her covering first. I have to figure out a color scheme.
On a side note, I’m trying to garner a bit more attention for this project. So I posted a build log on RCGroups.com. I made a nice descriptive build thread there, and posted all of the pictures I’ve posted here and added descriptions to all. Those interested should definitely check it out:
I will start building immediately and help tell the world about your project! Will shrinking the size for a Printrbot plus affect flight characteristics? Also, do you provide an assembly? I’m curious if a 3d printed hollow body would be possible. ??
Brook
Will shrinking the size for a Printrbot plus affect flight characteristics?
In general flight characteristics should be fairly close, assuming mass ratios and CG and other such things stay the same. “Aeronauticists” make model airplanes to determine the characteristics of the big real life versions. Traditionally that’s how they did it, but they rely on computer models more and more.
I don’t recommend scaling the drawing down, you’ll have problems with the servo mounts and spar fits. Lots of work would be required to scale. Instead, consider breaking the large parts in two pieces to be glued together after printing like I was doing before I got my Go Large V2. Only a few parts require it.
Also, do you provide an assembly?
Not currently, but I’ll consider it in the future. I found my 3D CAD package, though affordable, is lacking in some areas; creating assemblies is one of them. I find dealing with the large number of constraints impossible. I could make an assembly model in Blender for the purpose of creating an image.
I’m curious if a 3d printed hollow body would be possible. ??
I don’t know about the printing part (I think a heated build volume is required), but using my 2D sketches someone could easily recreate the OpenSwift with such a construction method.
I’ll start with the regular scale. It’s a great demo for the Go large and the bigger printers I’m working on.
One very large printer I have built has been printing with the .7 nozzle and on large cases, it’s great. I may fiddle with replacing some of the parts with hollow pieces to sidestep the traditional skinning method. This will take time, though.
You might look at auto desk fusion 360 - free for makers, $30/ mo for those using it for business. That’s what I’m using these days. It does assemblies.
@Andre_Roy You maybe right, but I have a feeling it will still be quite unstable. I seem to remember reading about a flying wing using split ailerons to provide dynamic yaw stability to avoid any vertical surface.
Also, I have a flying wing RC glider that has little vertical surfaces on each wing held on by tape. When one falls off it becomes very unstable.
@Philip_Stubbs_stuphi , Your destab might’ve been due to the change of drag on one side when you lost a winglet. I’m planning on adding flat plate winglets like you describe, but not for reasons of yaw stability.
@Brook_Drumm , regarding the skinning method, is the fibreglass step turning you off? That’s kind of an advanced skill I admit. But it’s not as bad as you’d think, for example the epoxy resin I use doesn’t smell. The balsa skinning should be accessible to anyone.
The plane needs a hard shell belly to take the impact of landing. We should brainstorm ways of getting rid of my fiberglassing step. Perhaps we can add a landing skid of some kind. I should be able to make that out of PLA. I’ll think about how best to do this.
If I ever make a 2nd prototype, it’d be helpful for me to make build videos… So people could see how to make it.
I’ve been thinking a long time on designing and 3d printing a flying wing on my own, now I can skip the designing part and just build and evolve it, thanks for sharing.
By next summer I’ll have mine flying
