I have not picked this Vtail up since I was stupid enough to take a part of a tail rotor to the eye this past June. It was a really stupid mistake, everything is fine now and it confirmed that the original landing gear would not work, at least for me. The above gear shown is from a mold that is then cut on a water-jet. I made up several sets for many of the models I wanted to covert to coaxial setups, and could not forget the Vtail.
This frame will convert well to a Mini Y6 design also and if I flip the gear around everything clears. This curve shape was more of opportunistic engineering than anything else, once cut though it has proven to be great landing gear.
Comments
I agree, this is actually recycled product, so it was a way to keep it out of the scrap yard. If this was made with the first intent as the above function Kevlar would be a great substrate to improve strenght and resilience. As I think to the construction of the skies that were made for me in the 80's and early 90's it always surprises me how all of of this technology is not implemented. I have a feeling allot of this will change quite quickly
Kevlar is a good option too : ) I would experiment with different hybrids, like you said, with Kevlar or S-glass as the base and just use the carbon achieve the desired stiffness/look. Either way, cool project.
Not sure as I have not experimented with s-glass layups. The direction of the cloth is what contributes to the flexible condition. Most mass produced sheet is 0,90 which is the difference. The curved strips have a ply that is not 0,90 rather positioned so it will flex. We have used Kevlar as a ply that can dramatically increase the flex strength and deflection limits.
Would a carbon/s-glass hybrid (or just s-glass) flex more readily than a pure carbon LG? It has been my experience that pure carbon is not so good at flexing. Like the idea though.