I haven’t forgotten about the Airship project
Just wanted to make a quick post to say that I have not forgotten about the R/C model airship project! Due to a recent move, the Mac (where I run Sketchup) dying, and some other stuff going on it has just been delayed. But I will be getting back to it soon, I promise! 
Add my feed to your blog reader (Google Reader is the one I use and recommend) and you will see new posts show up automatically.
Oh, and Happy New Year! I hope 2012 is an incredible year for all of you.
Flying U.S.S. Macon model airship! [video]
Upon visiting the AirshipModeler.com forums tonight I noticed that someone had posted a link to a video of Jack Clemens’ flying model of the U.S.S. Macon airship! It’s just so incredible to see it actually fly. It boggles my mind how much work he must have put in to design and build it. This is not an easy thing, as I have learned while working on my own flying model airship project.
Rudder/Elevator Control Surfaces
Rudder/Elevator Control Surface
I finally got around to cutting out the parts to assemble one of the rudder/elevator control surfaces today. The whole thing is built from 1/32″ balsa sheet material and some super glue.
Each rudder/elevator control surface is 8″ x 2″ and 1/2″ thick at the base, with 7 ribs.
The finished piece weighs in at around ~2 grams, and it feels as light as a feather. It’s so light that I now have no doubt that the tiny magnetic actuator will have any trouble moving it at all.
This turned out to be quite a challenge. I’m going to need more practice to get up to the level of quality I want for the finished airship. Although fairly rigid and strong once assembled, the balsa material is pretty fragile while working with it.
It would be great if I could find someone or someplace that could laser cut the material from my drawings. Just out of curiosity I think I will look around and see if anyone does work like this on a very small scale for a reasonable price. If not, I will just suck it up and get better at cutting out and assembling the parts myself! We’ll see..
[News] R/C U.S.S. Macon
U.S.S. Macon designed and built by Jack Clemens
I just found out about this incredible 1/40th scale R/C flying model of the U.S.S. Macon on the Airships.net blog. The airship, designed and built by Jack Clemens, is 20′ long and 3′ in diameter. It’s a BIG model airship and only fit in his two car garage diagonally. And it flies!
This really gives me a little more motivation to stop procrastinating and find more time to work on my own model airship.
Links:
Giant Radio Controlled Model of U.S.S. Macon
» http://www.airships.net/blog/giant-radio-controlled-model-uss-macon
FLY RC Snapshot: Recreating the USS Macon
» http://www.flyrc.com/aug11snapshot
You Built What?! A Colossal Flying Reproduction of a 1935 Airship
» http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2011-04/you-built-what-retired-engineer-crafts-colossal-gliding-model-1935-airship
Engine Cars on the Airframe
Airship with Engines (Rear View)
So after designing the engine cars it’s time time to mount them on the airfship. So I copied and pasted my engine car model into the main airship Sketchup file and spent some time mounting them to the airframe.
I am fairly certain that I will use either 1/16″ balsa or spruce sticks to mount the engine cars to the airframe, but I have also been thinking about using extruded square carbon tubes, or maybe even some small diameter carbon rod, for the extra strength. Some good 2-part epoxy would probably bond those together, and to the airframe, pretty well. I’ll have to think about it though, and maybe I will try both on the test section once I get it built.
Mounted Airship Engines (Close Up)
The engines will mount to the 13th and 15th rings near the tail so that the center of each propeller is 1 1/4″ from the ring it is attached to at a 45° angle. Since the propellers are 2 1/2″ in diameter this allows them around 1 inch of clearance from the airship.
Previously I had been thinking about designing a way to gimbal the motors to allow for some thrust vectoring to assist with the control system. For now I have opted to go for the simpler option, but may revisit the gimbal mount idea later on in the project. Stay tuned..
