Brad has bee working away on the first set of fuselage shells; over the last few weeks he's made both a right and a left. He's now working on tooling for the firewall and bulkheads and stuff like that.
This weekend I'm going up there to help Brad make tooling for Glidair fuselage internals. The biggest thing is probably the location tooling for the elevator PP tube guides, and quickie molds for the guides themselves. Once that stuff is done we can probably close the first shell set.
Here's the latest photos from Brad's shop:
The firewall and seat-back bulkhead patterns. These are made in two separate halves that extend to the mold deck.
The seat back and baggage end bulkhead patterns.
Left-side fuselage shell. The joggle forms are for the opposite shell.
The first-article canopy frame.
The lower part of the canopy frame mold. This tool is basically just the cockpit rail area cut away from the fuselage plug. It's just for the first couple parts; later Brad will make a more permanent tool.
The aft fuselage and fin portion of the right-side fuselage shell, showing the pattern for the fin root ring bulkhead.
Looking forward.
The fin area of the right shell, showing the uni carbon stiffening plies.
The canopy plug mold.
And the canopy transparency plug itself, ready for final sanding and tune-up.
page updated 17 January 2007 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2007 HP Aircraft,
LLC