View Single Post
 
Old 09-20-2019, 09:37 PM
mbauer's Avatar
mbauer mbauer is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Nikiski, Alaska -9UTC/-8UTC DSTime
Posts: 4,022
Total Downloaded: 27.71 MB
After a quick search found some interesting things about kites.

The SPINE is the major front to back load carrying member.

The SPAR is the cross-wise right to left load carrying member.

Together the Spine/Spar make a cross when fitted for a kite.

The SAIL is what catches the wind, just like on a sail boat.

Made my Spine out of fiberglass wrapped around a 1/2" [12.5mm] square steel pipe.

My Spars and the leading edge of the wings are carbon fiber square tubing 1/8" x 1/8" [3.2mm].

Waiting on the glue to set on the rudder.

Decided to post a little more about this project.

Was going to do a design thread, but realized by using an already made model it wouldn't do any good. When I design one of the next projects I'll post in the Design Forum.

Learning some build lessons on the way to getting this kite in the sky.

Worked with cardstock on all my models. This is the first using regular bond paper.

Lesson one was glue, deforms and causes issues, when using too much. I used way to much on the fuselage. However from 50-feet [15.24m], you can't see the damage.

For the photos of the fuselage:
1) Printed on bond paper
2) Bulkheads printed on cardstock
3) Fiberglass Spine in center glued to cardstock with super glue.
4) Can see where bulkheads are, paper is deformed around every one. To much glue was used...Piece of bamboo skewer taped to a small artists paint brush to reach inside fuselage to glue the formers in place.
5) Left the airfoil shape for the wing attachments. Next model there will only be a straight line. Photos of the wings will show why the change will be needed.

Weight of fuselage and fiberglass/carbon fiber is 9.5 oz [269.3gm].
Weight 5.2 oz [147.4gm] for the fiberglass and carbon fiber system.

Here are some fuselage photos.

Photo 1 shows cutting the fuselage out;

Kite Flying Time!-1-cut-fuselage.jpg


Photo 2 Shows using double sided tape on a square wood dowel to glue the pre rolled fuselage tail-cone.

Kite Flying Time!-2-glue-fuselage-tailcone.jpg

Photo 3 using 2" dia PVC pipe and double sided tape to glue the fuselage. For both the wood dowel and pipe the double sided tape is wrapped around to create rings about every 3-8 inches to grab the paper and hold for gluing. Only way I know to glue really long and big paper tubes:

Kite Flying Time!-3-glue-fuselage.jpg

Photo 4 Looking inside the fuselage to see the bulkhead just forward of the Spine/Spar junction. Notice getting ready to glue the bulkhead. Quite a reach with obstacles in the way:
Kite Flying Time!-4-inside-fuselage-showing-spinespar-junction.jpg

Photo 5 Outside of fuselage with the Spine End visible:
Kite Flying Time!-5-spine-end-fuselage.jpg

Photo 6 Ready for the Wing "Sails":
Kite Flying Time!-6-ready-wings.jpg

Not quite done yet.

As you can see this is a big kite! Hard to take photos to show any detail.

Mike
Reply With Quote