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General Design Questions for Project

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birdus

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2012
Messages
193
Location
Moses Lake, WA
I'm working on designing a 70% F4U Corsair made of carbon fiber. I asked a question in another thread regarding foam vs. honeycomb. The conversation drifted into more general design, so I'm moving that conversation here. Following is where the thread was heading.

But first, some basic ideas about the plane:

- all carbon fiber and foam
- Graphlite rods in the spar, but maybe steel or aluminum joining the outer spar sections to a central spar section
- no fabric control surfaces
- no folding wings
- no oil cooler inlets in the wings
- real, functioning F4U-like landing gear
- engine will be a Vedeneyev M14P

No, what I said was that your speed and panel size and facings combine to determine what core thickness you will need. Please do not oversize things. The panels I refer to are the sizes of the skin between other supports, like longerons, spars, and ribs. You have homework to do on how big the panels will be. You will have a rib at each end of the wing, defining fuel bays and equipment bays, maybe one or two as fuel tank baffles, and probably have one at each end of each bend. Main and drag spars will establish other edges. If you arbitrarily use 1" foam, and 3/8" would have done, you will have excess weight and you will have to extend your fuel tanks further out the the wings too.


Billski




I definitely want to take advantage of what carbon fiber offers and not oversize things.


I was thinking of making the fuselage in two halves, each of which would be foam sandwich, then joining the two halves with additional layers of carbon fiber at the seam. I don't know what sorts of longerons would be necessary or what they would look like with this kind of construction. Would they even be necessary?


For the wings, I was thinking of making four panels per wing: upper/lower for the inboard wing section, and upper/lower for the outer wing section (inner and outer delineated by the low point where the landing gear mount).


As far as fuel tank(s), I was thinking of a single tank in the fuselage for simplicity. I realize I would need a stronger spar for that. Wing tanks would increase the complexity a fair amount. Am I better off with a single tank in the fuselage and greater simplicity or a tank in each wing and greater complexity?

Thanks,
Jay
 
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