TOPIC: 3D printed model for Jetex/Rapier/Tender

Things have been a little slow with the 3D printing Typhoon just lately. I've had a few more attempts but regardless of what I do with deflector plates I get a strong pitch up under power.

As I'm working now with some of the new motors from Piotr Tendera I decided to make life a little easier and get accustomed to these with something a bit easier to trim. Roger and Howard recommended a Sharkey and I captured the plan into Fusion 360 and did start to print out a 3D printed version. But I started to hear Roger's screams of pain in Munich so I decided it was best to make the model the old fashioned way out of balsa. I did have to use mm thicknesses though. But perhaps I'll be excused that.

Well, the first thing I discovered was that the standard Sharky was a little small for a Tendera L2 so my next job is to scale it up a bit and try again. Sharky V1 got airborne and hot foot across my favorite meadow doing at least two complete rolls. So I'm pleased with progress so far but its back to the building board for a slightly larger V2.

Admin edit:

Roger asks (nay, demands!) a picture of your 'Sharkenstein'!

I claim mitigating circumstances your Honour. My balsa knife was blunt and the sky was calling.

just found this thread - very interesting concept . I love balsa im afraid but there are definite advantages with this method to manufacture really nice scale fuselages .. Do you think that just printing the fuselage and then adding traditional wings -tail and fin from balsa could produce an even lighter model . I have anew Flitzer ready to fly at a weight of 29grmms ( roughly 31 cm span ) -- do you think this could be achieved with a printed fuselage ?? --thanks TB

Yes indeed I'm sure one could mix and match conventional construction, balsa and tissue, and this LW PLA.

For your info, the Eurofighter Typhoon has a span of 250mm and is 330mm long.
It's printed in 7 separate parts and these weigh in as follows:
Fwd fuselage 6 gms,
Aft fuselage 6 gms
Wings, 5 gms ea
Foreplanes 0.5 gm ea.
And the fin 1 gm.
Then we have the parts that are not printed: motor mount, heat shielding and deflector plates. I haven't got a weight for these as I'm still messing around with them.

Roger has suggested that perhaps the 3D printed wings of the Buccaneer are not stiff enough. I'm just now printing a new set with some minor mods to add a little ripple in the underside to hopefully stiffen it and I've added a little washout.

Looks fine to me!

So, in my attempts to develop 3D printed planes I've decided it was time to go back to basics and get up to speed with something relatively easy to trim. This led me to Sharkey and, as I'm using Tendera L2s this has now led to Sharkey 130%

I have had three reasonably successful flights with this. With an 18" wingspan it's a much more comfortable fit with the L2 than was Sharkey V1 which has a wingspan around 13 inches. However, today I've managed to loose Sharkey 130%! She didn't fly out of sight but she did get into a rather nasty corner of my newly discovered flying field which has an electrified railway line, an embankment, a stream and several trees. I decided it was easier to make another model.

I think Sharkey could even be made larger and the L2 would still cope. However, I cannot make my 3D printed scale planes any larger (without buying another printer), and the indications are that I need to. Instead I've got some Tendera L1s on order. We'll see how they go with the existing 3D printed models. Perhaps they'll need to be a little smaller.