Building my own FighterBird Wing....
11-15-2004, 04:19 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Generic City,
TX
Posts: 195
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Building my own FighterBird Wing....
Has anyone tried making their own Fighter-Bird wing? Any ideas on possible materials I could use? I was thinking of cutting the shape out of pink foam, laying it up with fiber glass, and setting the wingtip curves while the epoxy cures. The wings typically retail for $15, and the way I fly, that tends to add up. Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.
11-16-2004, 12:24 AM
#2
My Feedback: (36)
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Billings,
MT
Posts: 478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Building my own FighterBird Wing....
A friend of mine used Coroplast, AKA S.P.A.D. Type Material. I do not know much about S.P.A.D.S. but he is VERY good with the stuff, he is an expert I would say with SPADS. Check out some of this designs and plans on there, built solely from coroplast, what he does with the stuff is amazing.........I'm a balsa guy, but would try some of this stuff some day.
http://www.benjamminsvideos.rchomepage.com/
On his website under Fighterbird Mods (Ben) says: "modifications to the Hobbyzone Fighterbird. The wing is 4 mil coroplast and the tail is 2 mil. I use a single piece of 4 mil cut to the same dimensions as the stock foam wing with the flutes running spanwise. To get the dihedral I heat the coro across the flutes with a covering heat gun. It takes a little practice to figure out how much heat it takes. To get the curve, I slit every third or fourth flute. Pressing the coroplast into the stock wing will give the same shape. To hold the curve I put packing tape on the bottom of the wing. I spread 5 pieces evenly starting in the center. I wrapped sign vinyl over the leading edge to make it a bit more aerodynamic. The coroplast is more flexible than the foam so the dihedral seems to flatten out on the ground but once it is in the air it comes back. They don't seem to fly as well as the standard foam wing. They don't glide as well. But they are tough and they will work in a pinch.
For the tail feathers, I cut out 2 mil to the same dimensions as the stock tail. I made my own control horns out of PVC scraps and glued them in place with shoe goo. I used shoe goo to glue the coro tail feathers to the plastic mounting block from the fighterbird feathers. It's really pretty simple to do. If you haven't worked with coro yet, I would suggest looking around the Spad website. There is lots of information there."
Give my friend Ben B a shout and he would be happy to help you. Visit his website and tell him "Bru" Sent you.
Good luck
http://www.benjamminsvideos.rchomepage.com/
On his website under Fighterbird Mods (Ben) says: "modifications to the Hobbyzone Fighterbird. The wing is 4 mil coroplast and the tail is 2 mil. I use a single piece of 4 mil cut to the same dimensions as the stock foam wing with the flutes running spanwise. To get the dihedral I heat the coro across the flutes with a covering heat gun. It takes a little practice to figure out how much heat it takes. To get the curve, I slit every third or fourth flute. Pressing the coroplast into the stock wing will give the same shape. To hold the curve I put packing tape on the bottom of the wing. I spread 5 pieces evenly starting in the center. I wrapped sign vinyl over the leading edge to make it a bit more aerodynamic. The coroplast is more flexible than the foam so the dihedral seems to flatten out on the ground but once it is in the air it comes back. They don't seem to fly as well as the standard foam wing. They don't glide as well. But they are tough and they will work in a pinch.
For the tail feathers, I cut out 2 mil to the same dimensions as the stock tail. I made my own control horns out of PVC scraps and glued them in place with shoe goo. I used shoe goo to glue the coro tail feathers to the plastic mounting block from the fighterbird feathers. It's really pretty simple to do. If you haven't worked with coro yet, I would suggest looking around the Spad website. There is lots of information there."
Give my friend Ben B a shout and he would be happy to help you. Visit his website and tell him "Bru" Sent you.
Good luck
