RE: SIMLA BUILD THREAD
March 17, 2010 from Ed Kazmirski's Taurus page 78
Members of the press, (and anyone else)
I'm going to do something I thought I'd never do...post pictures of my shop. I'm sorry to say that I have this trendency to not want to put everything away, resulting in a real mess over time. Lately it seems I spend 1/4 of my shop time looking for whatever I need at the moment. Enough is enough. Now you can almost eat dinner down there.
I finally decided to clean the shop, (with the help of my dear wife-Penny). We spent five hours down there not only cleaning, but installing new shelving etc etc. The reason I decided to clean the shop, (other than it needed to be done), was that it is a kind-of tradition when I start a new project...in this case a very special project.
Let me point out a few features visible in the pictures. Kevin Clark, (Pettern flyer 76) built me a building table identical to the one he used for the King Altair build thread. Things are held into place with magnets that attach to the 4X8 piece of sheet metal on top...really neat. Hanging on the wall behind the table is the original thick wing designed for the Taurus II, (it looks even thicker because of the photo angle). Above the T-2 original wing is Ed's last airplane...the attempt he made to get back into the hobby in his 80s. It was a metal plane with a modern proportional radio. The plane is totally ready to go, but was never flown. I bid for it as part of Ed's estate from Chuck Noble.
To the left of the wing and metal fuselage is the "unfinished" Taurus fuselage built , (presumably ) by Ed, and part of his estate. It is extraordinary workmanship, and light as a feather. The elevator surfaces were sewn in. The stab is the same stab as the Taurus 2, but the fin is thick. I believe it was an additional attempt by Ed to increase drag, that he abandoned in favor of the T-2 with the traditional fin. The wing intended for this fuselage is for a Bosch airfoil, so I believe that in spite of the sewn surfaces, this was a new fuse than the T-2. I have primed the fuse, and done the sketch for the classic color scheme.
By the way..on the table is a box from Jeff at Home and Hobby Solutions. The box contains the parts for the SIMLA PROTOTYPE. The plane built by Ed back in 1965 without plans now has been re-created as a laser-cut kit. After a lot of care and work by several of you from around the world, (you know who you are), this kit prototype is the tangible result of our labors, and we believe it is as accurate to the original as can be humanly possible after 45 years and lacking any plans or written documentation.
New for Jeff, this kit had to be engineered "from scratch" rather than simply creating a kit from the original plans...a much harder thing to do. We will not know for sure just how close it comes to the original Simla until the prototypes, (three) are completed, photographed, and displayed from the same angles as the pictures we have, but we are confident we did the best we could.
The prototype kits will be built by Kevin Clark, Jeff, and myself...looking for problems and better ways to produce the actual kit. Wish us luck. We may create a separate Simla thread..copying over some of the posts having to do with the Simla from this thread. Can that be done...I haven't tried it before? What do you think?
BTW...Jeff's Taurus kit, box and all weighs in at 5 pounds 6oz, (the finished plane weighs about the same RTF). The Simla kit tips the scales at 10 pounds. I don't know what kind of indicator that might be as to its final weight, but it's an interesting number.
Thanks Jeff for letting me announce your latest creation.
Duane