• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Search results

Find deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Find deals on ebay
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. rotax618

    New rotorcraft concepts

    Inadequate horizontal dampening has killed hundreds of gyro flyers, killed Ken Wallis’s test pilot at Farnbrough, put the stabiliser back on.
  2. rotax618

    The Janowski Project - Rethinking the J1B/J2/J3

    You are correct, I was pointing out the problem if the wing were to be raised and the engine left at its current height, to take advantage of lowering the engine drag. There is no advantage in raising the direct drive VW installation, the prop size can’t be increased, and a reduction drive will...
  3. rotax618

    The Janowski Project - Rethinking the J1B/J2/J3

    Two bladed props can cause pretty unhealthy vibrations when used in a pusher configuration behind a wing, both blades chopping through the wings wake at the same instant induces very sharp oscillations.
  4. rotax618

    The Janowski Project - Rethinking the J1B/J2/J3

    It would be beneficial to raise the wing, it would give more headroom, and cowl the VW motor to lessen the drag from the engine. Increasing the tail volume would make the plane easier and more pleasant to fly.
  5. rotax618

    The Janowski Project - Rethinking the J1B/J2/J3

    Raising the wing to swing a bigger prop won’t effect the power/pitch couple as much as you think, the wing produces much of the drag in achieving lift so the overall drag vector will not change much. I have an old set of J1B plans I purchased many years ago. I would scale up the fuselage in the...
  6. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    The spar top and bottom tubes were 40mmx1.6mm drawn tube, the rear spar was 44mmx1.6mm drawn tube, there were sleeves where holes were drilled into the spars, for compression/drag bracing and root attachment - 1.2mm alloy webs were at the root, tip and where the strut attached. The original...
  7. rotax618

    Model airplane spars

    Balsa is getting quite expensive over here, they say the Chinese wind turbine manufacturers are buying up the plantations. I have built a foam cutter and convert balsa model plans to foam, using the least amount of balsa to save costs.
  8. rotax618

    Pushers...way to go ?

    Beautiful work, I think a little over engineered, but a great design.
  9. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    The article about the Boorabee is not completely factually correct, I was never consulted so the author has used only snippets of fact.
  10. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    I’m afraid I don’t have the design skills to engineer your great design, the second seat adds another dimension to the complexity. Small single seat airplanes are not so difficult, load paths are much shorter and the loads are a lot less.
  11. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    It is a great design, and probably not too difficult to build if you have the skills, tools and equipment and a fair bit of aeronautical knowledge, but it is not something that most home handyman types could accomplish or would say “I could build that”. The proposal is very detailed and deserves...
  12. rotax618

    "SkyWing" hybrid wing body ultralight

    I posted this before, but an Australian built an airplane based on that Mechanics magazine, it flew successfully but the engine (a direct drive outboard marine engine) proved unreliable. He was quite old when I first met him, and I think he has since passed. The airplane was in a hangar at South...
  13. rotax618

    Mega-CNC Router Carves Styrofoam Into A Full-Size Flying Delorean

    I carve 3D shapes in foam on my homebuilt CNC, the latest one is only 1500 x 900mm so no Delorians.
  14. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    There are some pretty fantastic adhesives around for glueing composites to aluminium, MMA has been mentioned. If glued and riveted you would have the “belt and braces”, I haven’t had time to study that method, but I’m sure it would work.
  15. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    I was not certain as to the properties of the hand laid up epoxy/glass, so the wings were loaded once complete, with 1200kg of concrete pavers on each wing, they had no permanent deflection, the wings are strut braced (2 struts), the TO weight was < 500kg. The airplanes are still flying after 35...
  16. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    I used alloy tube spar caps on the Boorabees, on the Mk1s I used a blue foam former for the web, 2 pieces of bluefoam hot wire cut and glued onto the tubes, I then wrapped the tubes and web in epoxy/glass and when cured I riveted it to the tubes. The figreglass ribs were fitted first and the...
  17. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    Metal aircraft are not exempt from structural problems associated with corrosion and fatigue. Piper primed the internal structure of their aircraft, Cessna didn’t, it has cost Cessna owners dearly to undergo the SIDs program of inspection and repair because of this oversight.
  18. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    This is an excerpt from the Australian CAA bulletin.
  19. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    No, I was dubious, but it was done in the factory. They glue wooden ribs onto alloy tubes on the Skyfox/Avid, but I have heard of that failing. There are more modern glues, I believe called MMA that are used to glue almost anything - they build and repair cars, glue boats etc. Apparently it...
  20. rotax618

    21st century Volksplane?

    There is a place for all of these techniques in homebuilt airplane construction, it is up to the designer to ascertain which is the easiest, strongest and cheapest. I helped a friend build a CFM Streak Shadow kit, the leading edge “D” section and spar come pre made, it consisted of aluminium top...
Back
Top