f106jax

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It's hard to believe that it's 3 years since my Usher F-106 was disassembled to complete the paint and detail work. Having been sidetracked with several other models, it's time to finish the Six. Thanks go to Mike Youngling for finishing his Six, it's given me the motivation to move ahead.

Construction was completed in 2002 and the Six was maidened at Superman 2002. Seven great flights were made with only minor changes to the main gear door hinging needed.

This thread is not to give a complete building sequence but to highlight some of the structural changes as well as the cosmetic detailing.

f106jax

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Rich Fong and I built our Sixes at about the same time and shared info and frustrations with each other. The major weak area that we encountered was in the #3 spar. This spar carries most of the landing loads. I made an aluminum doubler that was aeropoxied and screwed in place. The arrows in the photo show the weak area.

f106jax

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A major change that was made to the Six was the removal of the molded vertical stab. The fuselage included an attached, one piece, stab. Due to the large surface area, it was impossible to remove the waves in the fiberglass. Templates were made and my good friend Yves Duscheneau of DL Aeromodeles, cut some foam cores for me. I cut the fiberglass fin using the top of the rudder as a guide line, and saved the top section. I grafted this onto the balsa covered foam core. This provided me with a scale outline and a hard edge to counter hangar rash, all for a minimal amount of work. The factory formers were mounted in the fuselage but cut off flush with the fin base. Carbon tubes were glued into the fin and they extend into the fuselage and are attached to the factory formers with carbon tow.

f106jax

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The landing gear plates that come with the kit are 1/8" plywood. These were replaced with 3mm flex plate material that I purchased from Art's Hobbies. Art and Marcy have been great with suppling materials for this project. The carbon flex plate material is a cool looking silver finish. Not scale but it looks cool. I'm using BVM sport jet retracts with aluminum frames. The wing is very thin in this area and not many retracts will fit in this area. You'll notice a small spring on the air cylinder shaft, this is used as a helper spring to assist the gear in retraction. With the air loads, the gear was not coming all the way up into the wheel wells. The springs have resolved that problem. The main and nose struts were custom made by Robart.

f106jax

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The nose gear is a Robart 105 deg. The nose strut has the scale "trailing bend" on the lower section, so the kit supplied gear mount could not be used otherwise the wheels would not retract completely into the well. A new mount was fabricated to permit the strut to stand vertical when extended and to enter the well completely when retracted.

f106jax

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For the most part, I did use the kit supplied formers. The formers that the wing spars mount to were covered with 6 oz. glass cloth and cured under pressure. The forward wing attachment method shown on the plans was to use dowels mounted in the forward part of the wing root which would insert into holes in the fuselage. I did not use the dowels but instead drilled a hole in each dowel mounting plates. A matching hole was drilled in the fuselage wing saddle. Threaded hardwood blocks were then glued into the forward wing saddle. The wing is then bolted to the fuselage at the front, #2, #3, and #4 spars. A very solid connection.

f106jax

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The supplied aluminum pushrods turned out to have an unacceptable amount of flex in them, permitting unwanted elevon movement. They were replaced with double walled carbon pushrods with titanium ends. Totally removed any flex.

f106jax

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Those were most of the structural changes that were made. The remaining posts will be cosmetic changes. I'll add more photos over the next several days. This photo is of the interior of one of the speed brakes. It took a little while but well worth the work.

f106jax

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Prior to building the Usher kit, I had about 200 flights on a ducted fan powered Six from the Classified Model Products kit. That jet was flown with an operational speed brake and I wanted the turbine version to have one also. The Usher kit has the speed brake molded as part of the fuselage. The speed brakes need to be cut from the fuselage, strengthened, scale hinge line formed, custom hinges made, etc. It is tedious but well worth it. The braking action is quite apparent when they're deployed. The speed brakes have been used on all of my flights.

These pics are of the scale hinge line, cylinder mounting, and rear view.

f106jax

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To avoid the brakes buckling from the pull of the air cylinders, the brakes had to be strengthened along the bottom edge where they were separated from the fusealge. Carbon strip was used to create a base and the strip was reinforced with carbon tow.

f106jax

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The inside of the speed brakes were stiffened using the scale cross hatch method. The cylinder mounts are carbon plate aeropoxied in the scale location. This really helps to spread the pressure exerted on the fiberglass over a wide area when the brakes are deployed.

f106jax

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A couple of different ways to mount the air cylinders to the fuselage were tried. The set up that provided the best movement for the brakes to open fully, close tightly, and keep the cylinders from fouling the closing, is shown in these pics. An earlier post shows the cylinders side by side, which is scale, but that set up would not pull the doors closed tightly. This arrangement, although not scale, works perfectly.

f106jax

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Some shots of the fuselage interior with and without the bypass. The valve and air tank in the spine control the speed brake.

f106jax

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The fuel door is made of litho plate. The scale hinges still need to be added.

f106jax

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The forward and rear side vents.

f106jax

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Elevon linkage covers.

F106A

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Hi,
The construction on mine is done as well. I've got to mount the engine/tailpipe, tanks and servo's.
I'd like to thank Mike for his help and info on building the SIX, without it, and the help of the late Rich Fong, it would've been a lot more difficult. He was kind enough to give me the foam core for the fin and the aileron covers, which really helped a lot!
Once I get the Vampire done, which I can fly off grass (don't think I can get the SIX off grass with those little wheels), I'll finish the SIX. Hope to have it done by Liberty Bell.
BRG,
Jon

Marty Snell

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Mike and John,
I now have the molds for Darryl's F-106. i am looking at a few changes to make the plane easier to build and transport.
I am interested in anything you are doing that will improve the plane.
I am working on a 106B conversion as well.
Please drop me a note at [email protected]
Thank you for the great build thread
Take Care
Marty Snell

I-NAV

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Wow!
Mike, your Six is going to put mine to shame. After I did the mods I had little energy left to cut vents or detail speed-brake wells. I'm impressed.

Here's some shots of my build.

Mike Youngling

Jim Patrick

I was just looking at old video I took in 2001 of Rich Fong flying his 106 at our field. Most impressive. I wish I had a way to digitize this for publication.

ArthurD

I just happened across you guys and your beautiful F-106 models. What's your interest in the '106? Were any of you in the 48th FIS?

EASYTIGER

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Just wanted to say, jeez, what nice work, Mike! Really a lot of thought and craftsmanship. Impressive.

f106jax

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"What's your interest in the '106? Were any of you in the 48th FIS?"

Arthur, Nothing more than a fanatical interest in a jet with beautiful lines. Been hooked on it since I was a kid.

ET....Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I'll have it flying at LBJR.

ArthurD

F106jax,
Thanks for the reply. I agree with your comment about beautiful lines. I spent several years in a F-106 squadron and never have gotten over how beautiful the thing is. Even to this day there are none more beautiful. The French went on to develope the delta concept into a modern and powerful fighter in the Marage.

Do you know of an ARF F-106, or anything close that could be flown R/C from 90 size down to .15?

f106jax

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Arthur,

I'm unaware of anyone making any kits of the Six other than Marty Snell who now owns the Darryl Usher molds/tooling. Marty can be reached at [email protected]">[email protected] Please be advised that the kit is not an ARF.

Regards,