JC's Planes and Projects
Top Flite Giant P-47 Thunderbolt (continued)
2/10/01 - I have been building steadily and now the wing is almost done. The wing is the most complex and involved that I have built to date. It seems nearly every rib bay has something in it - a servo, a gear mount, a wheel well, machine guns. Fortunately the plans and instructions are excellent and everything fit nicely. Make sure you have your razor-plane handy as you will need it to carve the LE of the flaps, ailerons, wings, and wing tips from block balsa. I ended up with some pretty large mounds of shavings along the way! Wood selection is excellent and this really helps with the shaping of these items.
This shot shows the gear temporarily mounted just after the wheel wells were cut out. Patience is required here for a good fit. Note that the axles have yet to bet trimmed and that the oleos protrude slightly. This is why you can't fly with the gear doors on. The oleos had to be switched to get the scissors to face forward. Mine were shipped backwards from the factory. This is easily corrected by just unscrewing them from the retract mechanism.
This is a detail shot of the gear in the down position. Note that the wheel well has been glassed and painted. This was done before bottom sheeting was added. Flap servo is shown removed from wing. It's entire actuation mechanism will be hidden in the wing. Flap is in down position to show the unique 45-degree hinging. I guess you could call it a poor-mans Fowler flap! The hinging lets it go down and back. Pretty neat, huh! The drilling and fitting of the Robart hinge points was done with the help of a 45-degree drill jig that you assemble. A sharpened 3/16" brass tube works great to punch nice clean holes for the hinge points. Ailerons are driven from concealed servo mounted underneath the far hatch. Dubro large control horn on aileron is mounted with four screws to a 1/8" plywood mount.
Wow! This is a big single-piece wing. Wingspan is 84" and it is pretty heavy. I am sure glad that I am glassing this baby, or it would be a prime candidate for "hanger-rash." I can't imagine Monokoting this structure. It is big, heavy, and covered with fairly soft 3/32" balsa sheet. Monokote would offer very little protection. Note the four plywood hatches that conceal the servos for flaps and ailerons. .
