I am sorry to hear about the IBM outsourcing. IBM always makes outsourcing look like a great deal. Lately I have heard that a few of their outsoucing clients have brought it back in-house. They just didn't work out. I have heard the same about the India outsourcing. Unfortunately people lose their jobs while companies learn. I could go on and on about this subject but I suppose I shouldn't do that here.


Back to the B-36.......

The fuselage supports were one of those things that I discovered were needed after I got in to the building phase. The carbon fiber tubing fuse spars run parallel to the fuse skin and your workbench so they can be placed anywhere you like. I believe that I put 3 of them in. They kept the fuse straight while I was building it.

I didn't think of the supports while I was designing the plane in CAD, but when I slid all of the fuse formers on to the carbon fiber tube spars I realize that I couldn't have it just roll around on my workbench. The temporary fuse supports seemed like a good solution, and they worked out well.

There are a few updates that I still need to make to the documentation, and the supports are one of them. The plans that I posted were posted a bit prematurely. I had a couple of the guys at work that urged me to get them posted so they could download them. At least that's what they said. I really think they just wanted me to get me going again on this plane. It has been set aside a couple of times. I am determined to finish it up.

I will also add some design drawings that show the cross section of the wing at specific locations of the wing. These helped me build the trailing edge of the wing. ( I am still not finished with the trailing edge )

I forgot to bring home from work the cable that allows me to transfer photos from my phone camera to my laptop so I won't be able to provide newer photos and comments until tomorrow.

This weekend I have been working on the wing mount and I have taken more photos. When it came time to building the wing mount I didn't like how I had designed it so I have reworked it. The new method seems to be working out fine. I will provide photos and update the design files. I hope to finish up the wing mount in the next few days.

So far I have heard only one flyer say that he will be building this B-36 next fall so I haven't felt rushed to get the design files updated right away.

I haven't heard anyone say that they downloaded the virtual reality viewer and viewed the virtual reality files ( the files with a .wrl file extension). I think these files would be a great way to review the plane before building one.

I would be very pleased to talk to a flyer that uses Unigraphics CAD software. That is what I used to design this plane.

This B-36 seems to have grown now that the wing is on the fuse. My workshop is 106 inche wide and the wing is 108 inches wide without the wing tips installed.

I sent the retracts back to Century Jet Models because I couldn't get them to fit within the wing. They replaced the air cylinders with different ones that have the air fittings moved to the side at no additional charge. The retracts will fit fine after that. Century Jet Models has been great to work with. They really want this plane to be successful. I know it sounds like a bit of a commecial but when you have a good experience with a parts supplier I think posting some positive comments is appropriate. If anyone decides to build this plane, mention that you want retracts for the Roerig 1/24th scale B-36 and you will get retracts that won't need any modifications. I expect my retracts to return tomorrow and then I can finish mounting them.

I hope to get the motor mounts installed later in the week. These will be changed too. I originally planned on using 6 geared speed 480 brushed motors and I have changed to brushless motors. I found some nice motor mounts that were 6 for $10 so that is what I will be using. The motor mounts have printing on the side: EMM 28A GWS. They are very light and will simplify mounting the motors. This will be another update to the design files.

Overall I suspect that I have a few evenings of work to get the design files updated with the recent improvements. FYI, the build file will show photos of the changes.

Mike