The canopy construction starts off 1/8" balsa rails, 1/8" balsa formers, 1/8x1/4 balsa stringers, and a 3/16" balsa spine. I build the canopy frame directly on the fuselage. All of the attachment hardware is installed at the point. I use two 4-40 screws at the front, two carbon blades in the middle, and carbon pins at the rear. The front of the rails is 1/8" light ply, grafted on, to make hard points. 1/32" regular ply is used to reinforce the slots for the blades. The rear pins are glued into the canopy and slide into plastic sockets in the fuselage. Not very high tech, but quite rugged.

Once the frame is glued together, it is removed from the fuselage and is ready for sheeting. This is where the fun begins!