Читать книгу Building and Flying an Aeroplane. A practical handbook covering the design, construction, and operation of aeroplanes and gliders онлайн

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Model with Gasoline Motor. The next and somewhat more ambitious stage is the building of a power-driven model, which has been made possible by the manufacture of miniature gasoline motors and propellers for this purpose. Motors of this kind, weighing but a few pounds and capable of developing 1/4 horse-power or more, may be had complete with an 18-inch aluminum propeller and accessories for about $45. As is the case with the rubber-band driven model, the monoplane is the simplest type to construct, and the dimensions and details of an aeroplane of this type are given here. It will be found that a liberal-sized machine is required to support even such a small motor. The planes, Fig. 9, have a spread of 7 feet 8 inches from tip to tip, each wing measuring 3 1/2 feet by a chord of 15 inches. They are supported on a front and rear wing spar of spruce, 1/2 by 3/8 inch in section, while the ribs in both the main plane and the rear stabilizing plane measure 1/8 by 1/2 inch in cross section. There are eight of these spruce ribs in the main plane, and they are separately heated and curved over a Bunsen burner, or over a gas stove, which is the same tiling. They are then nailed to the wing spars 6 inches apart. The main spars of the fuselage are 7 feet long and they are made of 1/2 by 3/8 inch spruce, the struts being placed 1 1/2 feet apart, measuring from the rear, with several intermediate struts to brace the engine bed. Instead of using strut sockets for the fuselage, which would increase the cost of construction unnecessarily, a simple combination of a three-way wire fastener and a wire nail may be resorted to. The shape of these fasteners is shown at A in Fig. 9. They may be cut out of old cracker boxes or tin cans (sheet iron) with a pair of shears, the holes in the ends being made either with a small drill or by driving a wire nail through the metal placed on a board, and filing the burrs off smooth. A central hole must also be made for the 1 1/2 inch wire nail which is driven through the main spar and the fastener then slipped over it. As indicated, this nail also serves to hold the strut. A drop of solder will serve to attach the fastener to the nail. The front of the fuselage is 9 inches square, tapering down to 6 inches at the rear. The height of the camber of the main planes is 1 1/2 inches and the angle of incidence is 7 degrees, measured with relation to the fuselage. The non-lifting tail plane at the rear which is to give the machine longitudinal stability, measures 4 feet in span by 14 inches in depth.