On the right in Frank Nowak the builder of the aircraft The van is a Honda
Odyssey to give you an idea of the length of the fuselage without the tail
feathers.Visit to EAA 1363 ( www.eaa1363.org ) Sunday Morning Get Together
Quonset Point Airport, Quonset RI
16 October 2005
At first glance this might seem to be a bit off topic even for me. But there is significant metalworking content so it is not really that far afield.
Besides machining and computers my other great interest is aircraft. Especially homebuilt aircraft. The experimental Aircraft Association ( www.eaa.org ) is the national organization for folks interested in such things and I have been a member since 1971. Sometimes very active and sometimes just following along as it were.
I am interested in some 7/8 scale WWI aircraft designed by a Canadian fellow named Graham Lee. Sadly Graham passed away a few weeks ago, he will be very missed among those who admire his work.
Anyway, I subscribe to a Yahoo mail list on the subject and a couple day ago I spotted a message from a builder in Rhode Island. I sent him an email asking if I might visit his shop sometime to view his project. He mailed back that today (16 October 2005) the EAA chapter he belongs to was meeting in a hanger at the Quonset Point airport and he was going to bring the fuselage of his plane. We agreed to meet there.
If you want to learn more about these homebuilt WWI aircraft a good place to start is the web site of the Kansas City Dawn Patrol one of the most active groups of enthusiasts of Graham Lee's designs. Their address is http://www.kcdawnpatrol.org/ You can also visit Graham's homepage http://nieuports.com/
Here are a few pictures of Fank's project.
On the right in Frank Nowak the builder of the aircraft The van is a Honda
Odyssey to give you an idea of the length of the fuselage without the tail
feathers.
Right rear quarter view.
Right front quarter view
Detail of how the tubes are joined together. This is a very simple to
build aircraft and although it looks delicate it is plenty strong.
Detail of the hinges on the elevators. The hinge material is an extrusion
that is cut into the proper length and modified to create the male and female
sides of the hinge.
This shows the elevator horn and hinge