Hauled out a damaged and semi-complete kit the other day. It has one of the typical rectangular box type fuselages. Not quite a trainer, but no imagination either. Several of the fuselage bulkhead formers are smashed and others are poor. Thus I have to make a few new ones.

Have been thinking to add some "roundness" or style to the old box. Would like to arc the sides of the fuselage some, and add a bit of bend to those otherwise vertical surfaces.

In the real world this would mean something, but in the small aero world how much would this change the agility of the finished model? We are talking of a cheapie high wing 1/2A sized A/C with about 4" tall sides.


Wm.

The main aerodynamic force provided by the fuselage is drag and the drag of the fuselage is not dominant in the over all. The changes which you propose will only have a very minor effect on how the plane flies.

Hi Wm.

You might want to have a look at the October/02 RCM magazine. There's an article in there called "Lite Tiger 60" which does what you want to do, and saved over a pound of weight!! Have a look and see what you think.

One cheap and dirty solution would be to just build it as is and then add some stips to the sides and top so that when you cover it there's some extra facets to the fuselage much like the old Stinsons, Monocoupes, et all used to do. A upper 1/8 spine that tapers from nothing to a nice fillet at the leading edge of the fin can be then covered to provile a lovely transition along the whole top deck. A couple of 1/8 stips along the sides about mid way between the top and bottom would add some visual curving to help blend the top.

I'm assuming you just want to jazz up the look a little?

Well, I probably shouldn't tell you of why the inquiery, but the fuselage was stored underneath a bed. A 400 pounders came in and while we were talking he "plopped himself" onto the bed, bending over the legs, and then squishing the fuselage. The reaction snapped just about every single rectangular former.

My thought was in reconstructing it to add about 1/8" to 1/4" of ronundness per 4" tall section. Thus the sides would bend a bit, giving it yet another appearance. Im making up new formers, I can easily add a bit of curvature to the formers by using a steel french curve in cutting out the parts.

I hadn't thought about adding a ronded fillet to the four corners, but that too now is being considered.

The big thought here was not to take the steadyness of a basic trainer type away. I use it about once per year. Those slab sides on the original used to act as a rudder, and some thought was expressed as to loosing that rudder effect. With work it used to crab into the wind for landing using rudder only.


Wm.