Aluminum spine for Multiplex Easy Star

Hi guys I had an opportunity build the aluminum spine to put between the 2 haves of the Multiplex Easy star this week
What I observed on you tube Foam planes don't stand up to impact very well when they hit the ground they break in half or they suffer from compression damage the foam compresses loosing it's original shape . The problem I had with the Radian pro was when you turned the rudder the tail would flex the fuselage independent of the front end The idea of the spine is to give some rigidity to the fuselage the Radian motor and propeller are much bigger than the Easy stars I made the new motor mount for the Radian pro motor and I just have to weld it to the spine then I can laminate the 2 haves of the Easy Star to it.I am extending the fuselage2 3/4 inches and making the rudder and elevator bigger
I am going to "the big city tomorrow night and the hobby shop to look at ways to reinforce the wings I just fly out my backdoor so I can leave the wings assembled and join them permanently together Im going with "flaperons and might "flatten the wing tips . Have a Great Day!

Carl, that's cool looking. You should be able to get rigidity with that. Such is the biggest problem I have seen with foam aircraft with long fuselages and wings. The carbon fiber products usually take care of the problem in wings but the fuselage suffers and often depends on sticky tape and the shape of the mold.

Coming from the old school of 'balsa builds better' I too have not bought into the instant gratification of going all foam all the time. It has its place like any material. My HF Bixler clone has compression damage and if it had a rigid spine, that would have been reduced.

Of course flying full throttle into the side of a brick gym didn't do it any good, but it survived. I probably could not say the same for a full-builld balsa model.Then again the pattern of flying pieces would have been way cool to catch on video.

Build On Carl!

-=Doug

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Carl La France March 8, 2013 at 5:18am

Thanks Guys the wind here is usually a constant 5 to 10 miles an hour and the radian pro wasn't very good at penetrating the wind unless you got the air speed up then you risked ripping the wings off. I need a plane with a bit of mass to penetrate the wind . . Gary I stretched the fuselage to give it more leverage Oliver it is 1/8 aluminum and I cut it by hand you might notice there are a lot of holes to lighten it up. As for the spiral I have done a bit of 3D. R.D. Balsa is repairable and I know many people that have balsa planes 20 years old and they still fly fine . back in the day I carried a garbage bag in my Gas monoplane made of balsa and many times it came home in the bag. You guys Have a Great Day!
R. D. Starwalt March 8, 2013 at 4:18am

Carl, that's cool looking. You should be able to get rigidity with that. Such is the biggest problem I have seen with foam aircraft with long fuselages and wings. The carbon fiber products usually take care of the problem in wings but the fuselage suffers and often depends on sticky tape and the shape of the mold.

Coming from the old school of 'balsa builds better' I too have not bought into the instant gratification of going all foam all the time. It has its place like any material. My HF Bixler clone has compression damage and if it had a rigid spine, that would have been reduced.

Of course flying full throttle into the side of a brick gym didn't do it any good, but it survived. I probably could not say the same for a full-builld balsa model.Then again the pattern of flying pieces would have been way cool to catch on video.

Build On Carl!

-=Doug
Olivier Dufayt March 8, 2013 at 3:18am

Good looking piece of aluminium... How did you cut it, CNC ?

I agree with Gary, be careful not to enter the spiral...

1. Need a stronger frame => 2. add strength (and weight) => 3. heavier plane => go back to 1....

at the end you'll have to fly a brick !!
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Gary Mortimer March 7, 2013 at 9:26pm

Careful Carl the only thing you should add to an airframe is lightness. That said lovely bit of work I can't do stuff like that.
Maxime Carrier March 7, 2013 at 8:46pm

Cool but do you really need that ? Those plane are almost uncrashable, you can almost remove your transmitter battery then it will land itself :p

Okay, little bit exageration, but those plan remain not expansive and spare part (wing, canopy, tail) can be bought.

I replaced wings on my bixler 2 after bad FPV experience, hopefully I lose camera, wing are almost total scrap but by miracle fuselage has no scratch.

I think I will use what remains of wing to repair my cessna (another bad fpv experience, overloas lipo is a very bad idea)
Carl La France March 7, 2013 at 8:09pm

That is the beauty of Diy. being from the "Old School I learn by mistake ' I plan on setting the angle of incidence at 3 degrees. When the plane is balanced on the center of gravity the face of the motor will be vertical any forward movement will create lift I am basically going to cut the tail off the Radian pro and stick it on the back Th Y shape at the tail of the spine will be embedded in Radian pro foam stiffing it up if I don' t exceed the original weight of the radian pro should be okmoving the thrust up should be off set by the extra mass at the bottom it is only 1 1/4 inches further up.
Peter Meister March 7, 2013 at 8:01pm

Carl, very cool and sure to be strong....
Joshua Ott March 7, 2013 at 7:01pm

Looks like a cool idea. You may want to play around with the angle of the motor before you finalize the connection (weld). Have you had a chance to test the effects of moving the thrust line up that much?

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