That is an interesting suggestion about transferring the print from the paper to the balsa. This is the third wing that I have built for this plane. I keep getting a bit closer to what I am looking for. I will definitely try your suggestion if I go for a fourth wing or if I just build another B-36. Where was that suggestion when I needed it :-)

The wheels are the Du-Bro Super Lite foam wheels. The 2.0" wheels weigh in at 5.2 grams each. When you have 10 wheels, you gotta go lite. The proper scale for the wheels should be 2-3/8 inches on the main gear and just slightly under 2.0 inches for the nose. Century Jet built a custom set of retracts for my B-36. They built them large enough to hold 2-1/2 inch main wheels. It seemed ok to me. When I designed this plane about 10 years ago I didn't have any thoughts of putting in retracts. I was focused on eliminating weight anywhere possible due to heavy brushed motors and NiCad batteries. With 2-1/2" wheels on the main gear, the wheels don't fit between the carbon fiber wing spars. I started by taking an inch of length out of the rectangular aluminum bar that holds the main wheel axles. This almost fit so I bought 8 of the 2-1/4 inch wheels. They MAY have fit because the foam wheels could rub slightly on the spars and the wheels might flatten slightly when retracted. I didn't like that so I just bought a set of 2 inch wheels and they fit fine with a little room to spare. The 2" wheels are a little narrower than the 2-1/4 or 2-1/2 wheels so now I need to shorten the axles a bit for the main gear. That's ok, they won't protrude from the bottom of the wing quite as much. FYI, the wheels protrude on the bottom of the full size plane so I will still be pretty close to scale.

I didn't know there was so much to say about wheels......



LOOK HERE.... LOOK HERE....LOOK HERE....LOOK HERE...

IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD THE PLANS, HERE IS THE LINK : http://rapidshare.com/files/92497326...First_Pass.zip

There is an option at the bottom of the page to download it for free. The download speed was quite high and I downloaded it successfully myself.

I feel that I must apologize a bit. I started out with the idea that I would post the plans and then kind of walk away until I got around to posting another zip file with the updates for retracts and so on. This zip file is not as organized as I would have liked and it does not have all of my documentation, it has no Unigraphics CAD files, no parasolids (for those who know how to use them, and finally it has only pdf versions of the part drawings, no postscript versions). I removed this info in an effort to get the size down. I will get all of that stuff in an updated file.

Be sure to download a virtual reality viewer so that you can view the files with a wrl file extension. I really like the virtual reality files. I referenced them from time to time when I was building. Virtuall reality viewers are available free for download. You should be able to get one from www.download.com I have used SolidView Lite which is easy to use, but the displayed assembly isn't quite as nice. My favorite is Cosmo Player. Cosmo offered a freeware version when I downloaded mine. I am not sure if they still offer that version. If not I can share my copy of this freeware version.


There, now the plans are shared out. I will be sure to post when an updated set of plans are ready for download.

My email address is [email protected]

Contact me if you have questions. If there are Unigraphics users out there, I would enjoy a conversation with them.

So from here on it will be back to a build thread.

Mike