Albion 5m Electric soarer
Posted: 27 Oct 2020, 16:03
Back in the 80s, John Hall (who makes the Pat Teakle Sailplanes range fuselages) used to market a number of fuselages/wing kits ranging from a 2metre ‘ish’ Prelude up to a 5m Albion.
As with the 100” Diamond electrified & fitted with 3m aileron & flapped wings last year, I have now designed a laser cut built-up wing for the Albion. John will be making the fuselages available again & Cliff Evans will include in his range as a short kit in due course
So... with building board recently made empty upon completion of the Salto, it’s on with the Albion
The wing was designed using DevWing & then the build drawings produced in devCad. The wing is designed in a similar polyhedral format as before, but now with ailerons, flaps plus an option for commercial top opening brakes to allow the builder to chose his weapons.
The wings are mounted using a 15mm flat steel joiner at centre height on the fuselage, which has large canopy & over-wing access hatches. The tailplane is a lowish mounted AMT type. The round nose section is nicely suited to motor installation & I am planning to use a Turnigy Gliderdrive encased Outrunner in this build (capable of 800w on 5S).
As there is a 4 part wing, the panels are <48” long, so easy to build indoors on my “office” desk top, rather than heating the workshop.
First up is the rudder, which is being built on a simple jig to prevent twist. The shot below shows internal ribs slotted into the false LE being built up onto the RH skin. Once the balsa horn area reinforcement has been added, the LH skin can be fitted prior to the TE and angled LE.
I’ve also started preparing the 1st Inner wing panel spar/web assemblies which will use 1/4” square spruce spars each side of the central web, top & bottom to form a true I-beam structure. One spar has been added to the bottom of the web so far & I’m about to add the one the other side before starting to slot the ribs into place.
As with the 100” Diamond electrified & fitted with 3m aileron & flapped wings last year, I have now designed a laser cut built-up wing for the Albion. John will be making the fuselages available again & Cliff Evans will include in his range as a short kit in due course
So... with building board recently made empty upon completion of the Salto, it’s on with the Albion
The wing was designed using DevWing & then the build drawings produced in devCad. The wing is designed in a similar polyhedral format as before, but now with ailerons, flaps plus an option for commercial top opening brakes to allow the builder to chose his weapons.
The wings are mounted using a 15mm flat steel joiner at centre height on the fuselage, which has large canopy & over-wing access hatches. The tailplane is a lowish mounted AMT type. The round nose section is nicely suited to motor installation & I am planning to use a Turnigy Gliderdrive encased Outrunner in this build (capable of 800w on 5S).
As there is a 4 part wing, the panels are <48” long, so easy to build indoors on my “office” desk top, rather than heating the workshop.
First up is the rudder, which is being built on a simple jig to prevent twist. The shot below shows internal ribs slotted into the false LE being built up onto the RH skin. Once the balsa horn area reinforcement has been added, the LH skin can be fitted prior to the TE and angled LE.
I’ve also started preparing the 1st Inner wing panel spar/web assemblies which will use 1/4” square spruce spars each side of the central web, top & bottom to form a true I-beam structure. One spar has been added to the bottom of the web so far & I’m about to add the one the other side before starting to slot the ribs into place.