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Wwalton Skybolt

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wwalton

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
241
Location
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Okay well not sure where to start but here it goes. Nothing to show yet but I figured I would get this out and establish the origin story for our Skybolt. I guess I could show the plans which I have now, but really I don't have a working knowledge of them yet so not much information available about those. Except that they look great. My wife and daughters that are still at home have all agreed on this plane. 3 of the 4 of us are certificated pilots, so getting 3 pilots to agree on the same plane has got to be a first!

I ordered the majority of the 4130 tubing today. I'm going to drive 4 hours to Peachtree City GA and pick my steel up from ACFT Spruce East. Diesel is a lot cheaper than price of shipping. I'm also on leave till June from the airlines so time is cheap for now. The longerons of the fuselage are 7/8" .035 then spliced to 3/4" .035 intercostals are sized similarly. I didn't order all of the materials just the majority of the fuselage tubes and some .090 plate. But I would guess this is 80% or more of the total steel. And close to $2000 in today's dollars. I only checked ACFT spruce and Wicks. The distance to GA was the obvious winner.

Part 1 of this whole endeavor will be me learning to TIG weld .035 tube. I will be using the Scrapper method of learning to weld. Obviously I've already begun that part, but I will try to document my progress with Scrapper's practice jig. My plan will be to show evidence from my present abilities now then hopefully ACFT quality welding ability by the time my Skybolt fuselage is getting finish welded. Should also serve as a good demo to the DAR or whoever inspects the plane as to the quality of welding done.

I can't begin to say how much I appreciate the group of people on this forum, I've been here a while. I especially have to thank Little Scrapper for his support and undying energy to build and teach.

Okay that is the start. Oh yeah we named the project, it may stick or something like it. "Blue" as in Pale Blue Dot. One of my daughters said it pretty quick when I mentioned a name. She knows I'm a fan of Carl Sagan and those were his words about the view of Earth from Voyager as it was leaving the solar system. Also it may suggest a paint scheme...eventually.

Thanks for reading,
Walt
 
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