Mould production
We added the foam core, sponsored by IsolatieWereld.nl, to our spine. We used regular mounting adhesive.
Now it starts to look like a plane.
Mould production
The next big step is to get the desired shape of the fuselage roughed out in foam. Here a visualization can be seen of the spine which is closely fit into the fuselage shape.
This is the goal: the fuselage plug from the spinner up to the tail section.
Initially the choice was made to build the fuselage shape from EPS foam by gluing foam blocks together and cutting and sanding the foam to the desired shape. CNC’ed frames would provide for guidance at specific intervals.
However the foam sponsor, www.IsolatieWereld.nl, had a contact available which could mill the foam plug into shape. Although costing a bit of money, the result is more than worth it. Saving loads of time and being much more accurate. What do you think of their work?
Mould production
After completing the wooden structure of the spine, trestles were build to support the fuselage plug for further production. So now we can work on a comfortable height. After an obligatory orange coat of paint it was time to add a bit of strength and rigidity to the spine. Two layers of fiberglass were added as some reinforcement. First we fiberglassed the top and the sides. And after curing for a couple of days we then fiberglassed the bottom:
On top of the fiberglass a layer of peelply was added to aid in the next bonding step.
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Mould production
We started with the production of the fuselage plug. A wooden spine has been build to support the foam plug during production. The internal structure was designed in Ansys Spaceclaim.
The plywood frames were produced by CNC cutting. And the hardboard sides were cut to size by jigsaw. The spine was joined together with glue and nails. Longerons were used to provide additional material for joining in the corners.
