Stacking it all up...

Here we added plywood into the recessed holes to both create the angled air intakes ans the spinner ring...

Shaping it by hand... VERY time consuming and tedious

Foam shaped and ready for fiberglassing...

First layer of fiberglass. Required numerous layers of glassing and sanding.

The plug is done and painted, ready to make a mold off of it... break out the champaign, it's time to celebrate!

Here's the completed cowling, both painted and unpainted. Stan's FiberTech made the mold and then pulled the cowling. The finish was great on it, and it was nice and light.

WOW.

AWESOME...

WOW.

The other molded part was the tail cone. I made that out of carbon fiber weave. Pictures of the plug, mold, and finished product...

watch out Carden.....Johnson's Aircraft Specialities is about to become the new kid on the block!

Way to go Baron! Hopefully you will make Triple Tree IMAC contest so I can get a good look at her!

Joe C.

Baron and Fred, that is truly awesome. I can't wait to see it in person.

Thanks Joe and Chris!

Here's some pictures of the fuselage construction...

The vertical fins are actuated through a tube which rides in nonmetallic ball bearings. The servos are connected to a timing belt pulley system to actuate the fins. The vertical fins have about 70 degrees of travel available (I've yet to experiment with this much rudder in flight). Under the turtle deck there are idler wheels to tension the timing belt pulley and minimize any vibration in the belt.

We flutter tested the vertical fin assembly up to about 75-80mph. We then perturbed it to ensure it would not set up an oscillation. Also, at lower speed we tested the retracting fin to ensure it could transit at speed without a problem.

That is awesome!!!!

Fred and Baron, DAMN!!!! SHEEEEEEE-IT sexy as socks on a rooster!! The BADASS-O-METER is pegged!! Biff love. Biff must have.This airplane is a study in thinking outside the box. The belt drive system? UBER sweet!