1/3 Spitfire

[David Brown]

Having sorted the engine I have now decided to do a 1/3 Spitfire. I have purchased a prototype kit from Rob Ellis which is a fiberglass fuselage with built up wings and tail surfaces. The wings are based on the Mick Reeves 1/4 scale plans blown up to suit 1/3. I am adapting the wing to be a 3 piece wing apposed to the 2 piece shown on the plan. At present I am just getting all of the bits together and sorting out design changes with my LMA inspector before I start building.

[rob ellis]

Congrats on your purchase dave,,, any issues or probs with any items from me please get in touch as I aim to help in anyway I can,,,, canopys should be pulled in the next week,,,,,
thanks again,,,,,,,
rob.

[Tinus Nielsen]

What do you estimate the final weight to be?

A friend of mine is on standby, waiting for my inline to reach a level where it runs reliably, and then he´s planning on building a 1:4 Spit Mk. XVI for a geared triple. That should make it possible to run a scale size 4-blade prop. And with a little planning it should also be possible to stay below the 25 kg limit.

I´m also very interested in your planned liquid cooling. Looking forward to hear more.

[sean smith]

When does the 25 Kg limit come in? I thought it was just a proposal at the moment.

[Tinus Nielsen]

I live in Denmark where we have a max weight limit of 25 kg ready to fly. :-)

[rob ellis]

Mike booth now does a beautiful highback mk14,,,
rob.

What do you estimate the final weight to be?

A friend of mine is on standby, waiting for my inline to reach a level where it runs reliably, and then he´s planning on building a 1:4 Spit Mk. XVI for a geared triple. That should make it possible to run a scale size 4-blade prop. And with a little planning it should also be possible to stay below the 25 kg limit.

I´m also very interested in your planned liquid cooling. Looking forward to hear more.

[David Brown]

Hi Tinus, how is the Yak coming along. If I remember right you are now using a radial for power. The weight of the Spit will be around 80lb I calculated, with the engine being about half of that so no ballast will be needed. I will post some pics of the water cooled set up when I have machine time to get it done, all the design are done which include new heads and water jackets in one. There are loads of radiators for PC's available with 12 V pumps which I will be using.

[Karl mander]

Love the project Dave, can't wait to see this grace the sky at Catton .
I'm just finishing putting some paint on the canopy of the firefly, it's come out at 41 kg /90 lbs so you're in the right area with your estimate for weight.
Karl

[David Brown]

When do you plan to test fly, I would like to see its maiden.

Dave

[David Brown]

A bit of progress on the spit over the last few weeks due to long cycle times on the machines giving me some modeling time. First I had to do all the mods to the wing plan and re-cut all of the replacement ribs etc to change it from a 2 piece to a 3 piece wing before starting the assembly which has taken nearly a week to do flitting between the workshops to load the machines. I am very pleased with the final outcome but my free time finishes today as the next work on the machines is all short ops. As the last pic shows I am now fitting all of the extra parts to box in the center section spars followed by reinforcement fillets etc prior to top sheeting and leading edges.

[David Brown]

I have tried the fuselage on the wing today and it looks very impressive at this stage.

[rob ellis]

WOW,.,.,.,.

[David Brown]

A bit more done today while the wife was out visiting family. The tail feathers are a good fit considering they are not from the same plan as the fuselage.

[David Brown]

More pics of the assembly with tail feathers.

[David Brown]

A bit more done on the wings, first of 10 skins fitted to one of the end panels. I have used 2 mm Lite ply as it will do compound curves if you wet the top surface. Because of the size and the fact that all ribs are ply I have capped them with 3 mm x 8 mm strips, this has allowed easier sanding to level off any miss-alignment and I can be sure that all of the ribs are glued to the skin without gaps with a bigger contact area. It seems to have taken ages to get to this stage after the wings were assembled, I have added extra vertical grain panels to create a box spar along with triangular fillets to lock in the wing main tube.

[David Brown]

Off the board this evening and fitted the aileron ribs etc. Note the difference in the tip profile, the skin is to the Monforton drawings and the built up tip is to Mick Reeves plans. I will sort it when i come to sheet the underside.

[David Brown]

more progress, both tips sheet-ed top skins.

[Wayne Cox]

Hi Dave,

Been following your build and looks great cant wait to see her fly.

Keep the photos coming

Wayne

[David Brown]

A Sample of the M4 ball joints arrived today, I have had 3 mm holes for the servo end and 4 mm for the control surface end. They look very good quality, German manufacture I believe from Rapid Electronics.

[David Brown]

I have managed to get some mill time and knocked up a retract frame for setting up the mounting rails. I have also made up a fixed leg to mount a 8" wheel on. It all looks good with the angles in general but I feel I still need to increase it from 96.5 degrees to 98 degrees to get the down angle correct. One thing I have changed is the pintel angle which sets the rake forward, this is to help ground handling and reduce the risk of nosing over on landing and take off's (those big props are expensive)