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| Left Outer Wing section, washout glued in place and drying |
Over the last couple of weeks, we've completely finished all the ribs and hard ribs for the regular v5 wing, and the longer v6 outer wing sections.
We've also made a lot of progress on the 175-14-400 prop blades, which are now fully glued, and only await sanding, fiberglassing, and finishing over the next couple of weeks.
Finally, we've been plugging away at finishing wing sections at a rate of about a pair every two weeks. We're now almost done with the regular Outer Wing Sections for the v5 wing. Next, we'll build the Longer Outer Wing Sections and the Wingtip Extensions over the next couple of weeks, then move on to load testing both versions of the wing (v5 -- 33.3 m, and v6-WE -- 40 m).
Ribs Finished!
We've finished all the ribs, hard ribs and end ribs for both the regular 33.3 m version of the wing (v5), and the 37 m version of the wing (v6), and the 1.5 m (X2) wingtip extensions for each version of the plane. |
| Working on the ribs |
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| All the v5 ribs finished except for lopping off nose portion |
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| All the v6 ribs finished, save for nose portion |
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| Final delamination repair, sanding and spar hole cutout of the hard ribs |
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| Repair patch to an over-sanded section |
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| Pey-Hua cutting out the a spar hole from an end rib |
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| Andrew and Ron cutting the 10 mm nose clearance on the ribs |
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| Ready to cut |
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| Cutting |
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| Done |
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| All the cut off nose tips |
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| Finished ribs with nose tips cut off |
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| All the hard ribs complete (besides already done Rib 0 end ribs) |
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| Largest vs. smallest end ribs |
Propeller Blade Progress
The 175-14-400 prop blades, make with carbon fiber spar, Spyder foam core, and carbon caps on the outer blade sections, and now fully glued, and ready for sanding/prep and fiberglassing.
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| Gluing the prop top onto the base with G-Flex epoxy and tacking with CA glue on the edges |
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| Holding the top down while the CA glue dries |
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| Blades with outer prop halves glued in place, cap strips glued across the gap |
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| Another view of the glued-together prop blades |
Three wing sections done, 2 Outer ones started
We continue to finish wing sections (save for leading edge and covering), at the rate of about a pair every 2 weeks. |
| Both Middle Wing Sections completed and hung to make room for building the Outer sections |
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| Getting ready to star the Right Outer Wing Section |
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| Inserting the rear spar in the ribs |
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| Taking a break from the build with a quad copter |
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| Prepping the bottom half of the shucks to use to align the ribs |
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| Outer shucks with washout angle on base, clamped in place to lock in washout |
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| Gluing the ribs in place |
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| All ribs glued in place, with washout in last 2.5 meters of wing |
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| Ribs glued and drying |
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| Carbon fiber cut to width to strengthen the trailing edge on washout area |
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| Carbon fiber reinforcement on trailing edge |
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| Under vacuum |
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| Separating the trailing edges from the vacuum board with stiff Mylar sheet |
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| Cutting the strengthened trailing edges out |
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| Prepping the hard rib for trailing edge |
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| Fitting the trailing edge to the rear doublers |
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| Checking rib alignment to glue trailing edge |
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| Marking the rib location |
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| Trailing edge glued in place |
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| Right Outer Wing Section flipped upside down to finish glue filleting |
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| Left Outer Wing Section ribs in place |
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| Cutting the noses off the ribs with a dremel (forgot to do beforehand) |
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| Threading the rear spar onto the Left Outer Wing Section |
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| Ready to glue |
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| All glued |
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| From the inside end |
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| Washout visible from outside end |
