Sparrowhawk chuck glider

After an earlier discussion about designing a balsa aeroplane my son later in the day presented me with his design of a chuck glider.  We had to see if it could easily be made and if it would fly.

Out of some 1/16" sheet balsa scraps I cut some 1/16" x 1/16", 1/16" x 3/16" strips for wing ribs and leading and trailing edges.  I cut 4 lengths of 1/16" x 1/4" x 10cm strips that we laminated to make a rigid stick fuselage.   We used some scrap tissue for wing and tail covering and by the end of the weekend we had a chuck glider that just needed a small amount of Blu-Tak for a nose weight and it flew perfectly!

I tidied up plans and they are available below:

Fuselage: 10" long, 4 laminates of 1/4" x 1/16th sheet.
Tail fin: 1.5" high, 1.5" long from 3/16" x 1/16th sheet.
Tail wing: 2" wingspan, 1" triangles from 3/16" x 1/16th sheet.
Wings: 5" wingspan, 1 3/8" wings from 3/16" x 1/16th sheet (leading + trailing edges) and 1/16" x 1/16" sheet for the ribs and diagonals.

Wakefield fuselage nearing completion.

I found a few more spare hours during February to start the construction of the Wakefield fuselage.  The main construction phase is now complete, I just need to finish off the wire landing gear and the rubber end mounting fixtures.

The kit supplied enough balsa for the fuselage without the diagonal bracing, so I used some spare 1/8" sheet to cut some balsa strip and add the bracing in as additional strengtheners as suggested by the original plans.

The fuselage was relatively easy to build, but I did have to rig up a few jigs to ensure I got a perfectly square and rigid box frame.