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Aluminum Tube & Gusset Airbike / Legal Eagle / Parasol Thread

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Victor Bravo

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Jul 30, 2014
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13,443
Location
KWHP, Los Angeles CA, USA
Putting my mouth where my mouth is (not a significant philosophical upgrade, btw), I am proud to herewith launch a thread for the discussion, renderings, slings 'n' arrows related to the recently rekindled interest in aluminum tube and gusset method for small high wing and parasol designs.

My belief is that this is far far far more relevant and promising than it may seem at first... because...

The original Graham Lee and Baslee tube and gusset designs have proven to be successful, fairly safe, easy to build, and my favorite... fairly cheap. They are easy enough to engineer, and require few specialized parts. The basic structure can be adjusted back and forth to make numerous different designs. Stock, mass-produced tube sizes in 6061-T6 and 6063-T8 are likely to be available in a lot of areas at a low price.

Importantly, the recent developments in CNC mahcines for cutting, coping, and drilling tubing can allow a cleco-ready fuselage structure right out of the box.

The airplanes using these fuselages have all been WW1 replicas, for no good reason whatsoever. The advantages of this type of construction for a small, light E-AB in the 30-80HP range have been artificially limited to WW1 airplanes because of designer preference. Let's have a thread that removes that artificial limitation because the basic concept is viable for many other uses:

It seems clear to me that the advantages of tube & gusset would be every bit as valuable for aircraft of the same size/shape/mission as:

Airbike / Legal Eagle
Texas Parasol
Flitzer Biplane
Baby Ace
Pietenpol / Sky Scout
Heath Parasol
Cracker Jack
Fisher Koala
LMA cub/T-craft

For this specific discussion, my intent is to limit this to high wing, conventional layout fuselages that will be paired with similar aluminum tube (UL style, or Zenith style, or Kolb style) wings. Yes, you could talk about a tube and gusset SR-71 or Supermarine S-6 replica, but that is far outside of what I envision this thread to be about.

So... what say ye, o Lofty Guild of HBA SolidWorks artisans?
 
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