RE: Hawker Tempest Project!
I've been away way to long but my first Hawker tempest wing skin has been formed. It went well but I'm somewhat disappointed with the total finished weight. It came out at 84 grams for a skin so four skins will result in 336 grams or approx 12 oz. I was hoping for something around 6 oz. I'm welcome to any ideas someone may have for weight savings. Here is how the wing was made. 1/16" balsa wing panel was precut from pattern. then I preformed by wetting out with windex and laying on in the mold and insert in vacuum bag and pull 30"Hg. left in for 12 hours and it held it's shape very well. I wetted out with epoxy and layed on two layers of 0.7oz cloth on the outside and a single layer of 0.7oz on the inside. I squeeqe the crap of all excess resin and apply peel-ply and breather cloth. Into the mold and bag for a full 30"Hg pull. The finished product is perfect other than the weight. The fuse halfs came in at 40grams each so I'm much happier with them. Again any ideas to save weight are welcome.
First pic is the fuse halfs and then the top and bottom of the wing skin