Jeff,

Thanks for the pics.
That is a nice compact arrangment you have for the elevator linkages. I like the way you made the horns.
That is very similar to what I have been planning for my Jaguar, but I think I will also investigate the possibility of using the spoilers for roll control. I plan to build a small (about 3' ) glider to test much of these ideas before actually using them in the big one, so hopefully there won't be too many surprises on the first flight.
I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Kevin
Since you are putting spoilers on your jet, are you going the whole way and fitting slats to ?

Any chance of some more pic's Jeff, and are you making a scale u/c ? They're a tight fit on the full size and you wouldn't want your hand in the way when the bay doors close ! Since your into the Jag, you may be interested in the plans I've just started work on....The Buccaneer?
Dave

Dave,

Nothing is in concrete yet. Until I have built and flown the glider to test the different control system ideas (spoilers vs. tailerons or combination of the two) I am not sure exactly which method I will use to control this sucker.
Slats would be nice, but with all of the other challenges associated with this airplane ( i.e. very complicated scale gear, full span flaps in a very thin wing) I think I will avoid making it even more complex than it needs to be.

Kevin
Don't be put put off by the look of the gear, it's a lot simpler than it looks. It just pivots about an angled hinge, and what looks like a big jack is just a drag strut. The main bogies are tucked away using a fixed strut and some simple geometry.Watching it all tuck itself away from five feet away is pretty cool, especially when you reduce the hyd pressure and do it in slo mo.
You're not wrong about the wing, I couldn't believe how thin it was the first time I worked on it.
One thing that may be of interest, the full size aircraft tend to leave the pylons on even if they are not carrying stores as it helps the handling characteristics. The display aircraft has the outbourd pylons left on.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the encouragement.

I think I already have a relatively good understanding of the gear geometry, but I would definately welcome any input you might have!!
I have studied literally hundreds of photos of the gear in various stages of transit, but the biggest help so far has been the plastic models and the Discovery Wings channel broadcast last month on French aviation (dont' worry, I am doing either the GR-1 or the International ). The program had several scenes of the gear retraction sequence of a Jaguar on stands including relatively close shots of the mains as well as the nosegear. It was like a godsend for a guy who has never even seen one of these things but wishes to reproduce it, I stayed up all night just to be sure I caught it on tape.

The main problems I see with the gear now (now that I understand how they work) will be in manufacture of the complicated parts, and in locking mechanisms.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that the main gear on the full size Jag do not have positive locks. From what I have seen there are two hydraulic rams, one to push the gear up and the other to push it down, and the only down lock appears to be from positive pressure in the hydraulic ram. I do not see any kind of over-center linkage at all. I do not wish to get into hydraulics (ala Fiberclassics Mig-29), so I think I will have to comprimise some "scale" for functionality in the operation of the main gear.

The other problem is that the angles of the main struts and associated attached mounting lugs do not lend themselves to being reproduced by standard machine tools (at least not the ones I have in my garage). I have a feeling that several parts of the gear will have to be investment cast from raw aluminium (notice spelling since this is a "limey" aircraft).

I realize that I have MUCH work to do before this airplane takes to the sky, but I think it will be well worth the effort to see a 9 foot Jaguar making a low pass at 195mph!!! (estimated speed sanitized for the AMA lurkers)
I welcome any advise, pictures, or encouragement you might have.

Kevin
I have a sheet of drawing that you could have, and I will speek to 'wolfie' my boss, but I sure the down lock on the mains is hydraulic via the big drag strut. The actual retraction jack is at the back of the leg. Hydraulically it's one of the simpler aircraft I've worked on, well laid out and easy to understand.
Send me an e-mail at [email protected] and I'll be able to go into more depth.

Dave

Hi there all.

My name is Rick and I have a Jag just like Jeff's and just like the one that Jeff built for Garry,

Well to be accurate the one I have was built by Jeff as well,
It has not been airborne as yet. as I need to finish it.

Jeff did the building & glassing but I need to do the finishing

The new Jags #3 (Jeff's) & #4 my Jag are far more to scale then the original Jag.

Regards to all

Hi Rick
Which version/colours are you going to finish it off in ?
Even though I'm biased towards the RAF versions, I really like the look of the M model the French used for carrier trials.
Hope it goes well.
Dave

Dipsy,
Regarding the colour I am not sure as to what I will do however I am positive the Jag will go Great.

after it is painted i will post some pics

Keep in touch


Rick.

PS Marty, Did you enjoy mangalore and have a good trip home.

The RAF jets are painted in a funky new overall grey.

just wrote a heap of notes on control setups that this computor wiped before posting i'll get back in a couple of days guys this screen is jumping all over the place

Kevin
Sent you a couple of e-mails
Dave

Here's a great link for Jag detail guy's.

http://jaguar.hyperlink.cz/photo.htm

Dave

g'day chaps. a few more musings on the jag. i've just returned from adelaide jet action and the jag's first flight with the jetcat 80. it went superbly power wise,a much more appropriate engine for this particular model, however, during the conversion it lost a little weight in the nose~this isn't heading to the catostrophic conclusion that the dreaded words TAIL HEAVY conjur up thanks entirely to the profound skill and cool head of paul bennet!~best test pilot in this solar system! but it did dip a wing on roll out after landing and broke off the outer panel. i consider it a very lucky escape and thank the gods that i have the good sense to delegate test flying to someone with the skill, detatchment and analytical capabilities to make a test flight a wealth of information, not just blast around and say thats nice, or not!

anyway to summarise and i think kevin will be interested in this;

on this flight the C G was set at about 17% mac ~at the last minute i actually tied a 6" shifting spanner in the nose!!!!! this is what probably saved the model!!!! it was very touchie and rocking the wings through straight and level flight. as the fuel burned off it just shifted forward enough to land ok~albiet quite hot. the first test flight had the C G falling at approx 10% dry with all fuel forward and it landed very nicely~ i still can't explain the brain explosion that had me tampering with something that works!! the wing sweep is approx 45* and this it seems makes the wing behave very much like a delta so i've made a new set of extra strong wings for the intact fuse and guts that i so fortunately still posess

kevin the thrust line is just about zero along the bottom of the steel pipe (in elevation) with the top tapering down. with the p80 i tied the model by the main landing gear to a fishermans scale and read out 8kg~ virtually no thrust loss in this bifurcated pipe (it was made by intairco australia) the same scale with the pst read 4.5kg~ so a very informative and downright lucky flight that one! thanks splinters!!!

lets all hope that these middle east problems are short lived and merciful and we can continue to admire these wonderful jet
aircraft as thoroughbreds rather than delivery systems

The full size aircraft suffers from rocking wings when there is too much angle of attack. It gets progressivly worse until the aircraft departs completely, which is extremely violent. Just goes to show you have built an extremely scale like model. Any chance of some pics to drool over?

just had a weekend out with the jaguar at temora airport in nsw aust.what a challenging and rewarding hobby this is photo submitted as evidence. jetcat is a great engine kevin p80 in this model

I think I have spoken with you several times at the SMAC airfield.

Do you remember what the new recommended CG position was for my Gee Bee that flew last weekend?

I should have wrote it down, but didnt think to.

Anyways, if you remember...