It's exciting to see the big scale projects going on like the 80" Lazy Bee and the big Yak54!! I've started my winter project. It began with 22 pounds of balsa, plywood, and basswood. 12 sheets of 48" long foam. There are currently 71 CNC files. I'm about 2/3 thru cutting the parts. My MK1 has been grinding thru parts for about 30 hours so far. This will be a 66" diameter saucer. It will have about 3,000 sq inches of wing area. Length will be just over 7 feet. I'm guessing about 12 pounds finished weight. I'll be using an E-Flite Power 90 motor with a 20x10 prop and two 5000 mah 5 cell lipos. According to MotoCalc that should produce about 12 lbs of thrust. It won't be done any time soon. Hopefully around April. It will be built in 3 sections so I can get it to the flying field. I've attached a couple initial pictures. The first is the pile of wood. The other is the inside rib. It is 58 1/2" long and about 4 1/2" tall. The table it is on is 5 feet across. The Yak video was awesome! I'm looking forward to the Lazy Bee video!!

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Is it going to be on of those PhlatCat mobile?

 

Yep, the fuselage could double as a boat Plenty of room for a PhlatCat.

 

Here is an update on the big saucer project. Man, bigger means a lot more work . I've also included a picture of a mod I'm using to cut all those sheets of ply and balsa. Progress seems to be good. Moving slowly thru the construction stage and doing a lot of thinking as I go is helping to identify areas that need more thinking about :?:










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Thanks Crash! This is by far the biggest airplane that I've ever worked on. Did you notice the holes along the outer part of the disc? Those are for LED pods that have 9 LEDs in each pod. There will be 30 of those pods built into the frame.

 

That saucer is going to spawn a whole generation of UFO sightings and will give the SciFi channel lots of program fodder for years to come. :geek:
Great job!

 

Just wanted to post a few update pics. Looks like the AUW will be around 14 pounds.









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14 pounds??? That's quadra territory. What is this monster going to be propelled by?

 

It will be using an E-Flite 90, 8 cell lipo, and a 16x8 prop. MotoCalc says this should work well. I hope it's correct.

 

A new saucer is born. I thought these words were appropriate considering it took 9 months to complete. It came out as an 18 pound baby giant. A little more than I bargained for. But, here it is and it's ready to fly. I hope to get some field tests in this week.













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Thanks for the comments guys. Mark, it's always an honor to get time on the front page. Thanks for the spotlight time. There are a lot of awesome projects that have been (and will be) "born" from the PhlatPrinter.

 

Very Nice!

Makes me want to cut some balsa and ply! It's been so long since I have used my iron and heat gun, I'm not sure I remember how to lay down covering. Your covering looks great by the way! I would love to see a clip of this baby doing it's thing.

 

I did a ground test. This included a thorough range check that included full power with the saucer being held in place. It is interesting what static tests can show. I have not used a motor of this size before. While still in the basement, I discovered that about half throttle, the size 2-56 elevon push rods were flopping around. So, they were replaced with fiber glass tubes. No more flopping. After the "held in place" test at the field, I taxied around the field at least 6 times. Testing the structural strength, landing gear, and to see if it had enough power to eventually get off the ground. The power seems to be there. The frame held up to the bouncing around the flying field. The 3/16" nose gear seemed very wobbly. My veteran flying buddy suggested that be changed to 1/4" wire. So, I'm doing that before the first flight. After this change, next time out, it's going up. And, that's some exciting stuff on the 3D printing!