The front section assembled.
If you’ve read my Parnall Elf thread you may well notice the similarity in design; why change a winning formula? One difference is that I’ve reverted to my preferred method for mounting the engine, which wasn’t the most practical with the highly tapered front on the Elf.
The “engine” bearers are glued and screwed directly to the side doublers; the engine is mounted on a Paxolin plate, which in turn is bolted to the bearers. This method gives great rigidity to the front of the fuselage and also makes changes to the thrust line easier if required.
With undercarriage attached.
The front position for the undercarriage mounting is fixed by F2; this has to be accurately positioned because it is also the mounting for the front cabane struts. Having built the undercarriage first it was an easy job to make small adjustments to the position of the rear mounting cross member to ensure a good fit (in practice it needed to be about 1mm further to the rear than I’d drawn on the plan). Done the other way round, bending and silver soldering the piano wire to fit the fuselage, would have been a lot more problematical!
Showing “engine” bearers.
Another shot showing the wide spacing of the bearers.