Depron Starship scratch build

[Nick Chudley]

This is what the real thing looks like:

mine looks like this:

[Nick Chudley]

The idea of this plane is really as a slope soarer. Then we had a heat wave and no wind, so I fitted 2 130watt electric motors and a 2200 mAHr 3S1P battery. They can be removed when the windy weather returns.

Only 2 servos- ailerons and elevator, no fancy mixing at all.

This is how it flies:

[Nick Chudley]

I started with these downloaded drawings:

Then, using "Techsoft Design Tools" I generated these drawings.  With slope soaring in mind, I wanted thin airfoils, (7%), and a minimal, slinky fuselage. All Depron is covered with Solite:

 

Edited By Nick Chudley on 18/07/2013 13:17:04

Edited By Nick Chudley on 18/07/2013 13:43:58

Edited By Nick Chudley on 18/07/2013 13:48:32

[Nick Chudley]

Construction depends on the idea that you can bend Depron provided you put packing tape on the outside to stop it cracking. I then used a broom handle to fold it around. The glue is mostly UHU Por, with some white Gorilla glue.

Fuselage works like this.  It's had the proper prototype battering and it's very strong, except for that all-moving canard, which I replaced with a conventional one, using a normal control panel.:

 

Edited By Nick Chudley on 18/07/2013 13:29:16

Edited By Nick Chudley on 18/07/2013 13:40:01

[Nick Chudley]

Wing is constructed like this:

To brace the dihedral, I added one piece of 6mm x 1mm cf strip into the bottom of each wing half. Turned the wing over. Flattened one half and raised the other wingtip by 50mm. a third strip of cf, 150mm was then glued and clamped to hold the dihedral in place. See the Wingplan drawing, above.

Nacelle covers were made from 2mm Depron. Fixing is by 2 screws from underneath, into plywood plates.

[Nick Chudley]

After some battering in the rough field where I fly, I changed the elevator arrangement to a standard canard with a control panel of about 40% of the total area. - a big improvement in handling. Here it is before re-covering:

Main wing fixing looks like this:

Front:

Rear:

[Roy Mundy]

Looks good Nick, You have made a nice job of it and it flies well.I like working with depron too I have built the polaris which flies nice, I'll bookmark this page and maybe one day have a go.

[Nick Chudley]

Thanks Roy. I can confirm that it's a lot of fun to fly and look very graceful in the air.

[Nick Chudley]

Here is some more fun and games with my Starship. Not what Beechcraft envisaged for their beautiful business turbo prop, but it is a joy to play with.

 

 

Edited By Nick Chudley on 20/07/2013 20:34:14

[Roy Mundy]

She flys really well, very graceful ...........tempting although I have enough projects on the go at the moment. thanks for sharing it