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| Plug for UCI's prop mold |
On Monday, August 12th, I visited with Joe King and Jacquie Thomas of UC Irvine's HPA team, started by Jacquie several years ago as a freshman.
UCI has independently arrived at a wing planform almost identical to our v5 design. There are differences, though -- they are considering a sailplane-like midwing fuselage rather than a low-slung fuselage like we are using, their prop RPM is higher (and thus prop smaller), they are using a square spar and are thinking of doing without a lift wire, for some examples.
We had a productive discussion for a couple of hours and I got to see some of their test pieces and sample parts. The molding on their prop is beautiful, and they have come up with a very clever design to be able to cut out their leading edge wing skin from a 3" thick piece of Foamular, so that it unfolds to full size (thicker than 3 inches when unfolded).
We'll definitely be keeping in touch with UCI and helping each other out with tips and tricks as our projects progress.
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| Trying out their propeller test rig |
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| Entrance to the UCI team lair |
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| Hot wire machine by UCI |
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| Prop molds |
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| Back Side of Prop Mold |
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| Prop skins in various states of manufacture. They are experimenting with different internal spar and rib configurations. |
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| First test spar |
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| Closeup of propeller test rig |
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| Closeup of propeller |
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| Leading edge sheet manufactured in folded from |
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| That same leading edge unfolded |
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| Leading edge sheet popped into place |
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