DH SEA VIXEN for 40 mm EDFs

At last a bit of real progress, the booms with their fins glued on!

The string is a pull through for the elevator servo wire.
The continuation of the booms under the wing still to do and quite a bit of "make up" planking to fill all the gaps to ensure a good boom to wing skin joint.
The tail plane by comparison will be simple as its just a constant chord plank!

The tail plane goes on with its strange fillets.

To my relief the elevator servo string pull through worked despite the rather convoluted path but then 32 AWG servo wire is pretty flexible.

The Sea Vixen definitely had an all moving tail plane (unlike the original DH110) although not an 'all flying surface' but all moving for trim purposes with a conventional elevator.
Perhaps Andy could confirm this.

Quorneng wrote: .....The Sea Vixen definitely had an all moving tail plane (unlike the original DH110) although not an 'all flying surface' but all moving for trim purposes with a conventional elevator.
Perhaps Andy could confirm this.

I'm afraid I can't confirm or deny that one Q, as it's some 30 years ago that I flew the aircraft and my notes are well buried in the loft/garage/shed! However, it does sound about right and it was the accepted means of trimming and operating the aircraft at the time. The trim changes with speed on such aircraft were significant and required far more elevator movement than would have been required for normal flying. Therefore, a moveable tailplane was the ideal solution.

The Buccaneer was significantly different Eric. As well as a moving tailplane for trim, an elevator for flying control, the tailplane also had a flap mode. What you would have seen on take off was 25 degrees of flap on the tailplane which was required to balance the 25 degrees of droop on the ailerons together with the 45 degrees of normal flap. It was referred to in the cockpit as 45-25-25.

The control surfaces added and plugs added to their servo wires.

Still got the horns and links to make.
The DSMX Lemon 'stab' Rx has been 'stolen' from the Petiterina as it really doesn't need it. That now has a 'cooking' DSM2 6ch Orange rx.
The Lemon is installed in a dedicated compartment underneath and close to the expected CofG.

Before connecting up the ESCs I need the battery (on a slow boat from China!) so I can determine exactly where to run the wiring.
So far it weighs 8.0 oz (227 g). The battery will weigh about 3 oz (85 g) so even with the remaining structure and paint it should still be close to my target of 13 oz (370 g) ready to go.

What really worries me is that I find myself thinking what to build next.

Using a 'slvae' ESC (the 'flight' ones are not connected) the controls can be tested.

As usual both the travel limits and aileron differential have been set 'mechanically' as with such small servos I need the full servo travel to give the required control surface movement as this makes best use of the available servo torque.

Not a lot done, still waiting for the battery, but made a start on the nose cone.

Planked up in one piece working vertically.
There will be 18 planks in total.

Once all the planking is complete the nose cone base former is removed. This is easiest it done straight away as the POR is still soft but is still sticky enough to hold the planks together.

A small 'flange' is glued to the fuselage nose to locate the nose cone and provide a bit more glue area.

A case of build light taken to the extreme?

What ain't there can't weigh very much!
Mike

The 3 'pointy' bits go on.

The green foam (laminate underlay) bits are solid and although it is rather soft it is only about half the weight of Depron!

If the battery take any longer I may have to complete the fuselage and then cut it open again as the suitable position to create the battery bay. .

On with plan B - completing the fuselage skin.

Just one plank to go, always the hardest to fit, and then start on the cockpit area proper.
To save weight the glazing will be 'solid'. in fact, everything apart from the actual hatch will be 'load bearing stressed skin' just like the rest of the fuselage.

At long last the skin is complete!

When the battery arrives I can work out where and what will have to be cut out to make the battery hatch.

Some initial painting with Scola water based (foam safe) acrylic. .

At this stage it is a bit experimental to simply explore what sort of finish can be achieved and its weight!
The white Depron of the wings only requires a single coat but the fuselage requires 2 or 3 well sanded coats to fully hide the plank edges.
Nevertheless so far so good.

Slowly moving on with the paint job.

It has taken quite a bit of 'paint, fill and sand' to get the planked bits reasonably smooth without hopefully adding too much weight.