After finishing the tail pieces I started eliminating much of the wood. My wing main spar and leading edge are composite and I wish I had done the mid-span ribs with foam and spruce or ply capstrips. If your goal is to replace all wood, I will be interested to see how you build the pod. I gave it some thought and decided to build the basic structure per the planes with spruce, and replace the bottom doors and outside plywood with a one piece molded Kevlar skin. I uploaded pictures of it. It seemed to me that to make it all composite would have required making many molds and re-engineering the controls and this seemed easier. Maybe for the next one .

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From: Philip Lardner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2012 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Carbondragonbuildersandpilots] "Carbon" Dragon?




Hi Kenny,

You'll find a copy of your spreadsheet in the last tab/worksheet of my own spreadsheet of calculations, which is in the files section of this group - link below. I've updated my spreadsheet to tidy it up a little and to add my load/stress analysis of the ribs. I'm not sure how to do a load/stress analysis of the H-Stab and V-tail/rudder... but I have a feeling the loads are not big. Any advice would be appreciated!

I am planning to eliminate all the wood from my build and fabricate purely out of carbon fiber and foam. I successfully completed a load test of a root rib constructed out of 5mm foam (to 8g / 32kg) and am just starting to build a second root rib out of 10mm foam (with narrower caps and internal struts than the 5mm one) for a weight/strength comparison. I'll post the results shortly - I got a bit delayed while I got myself set up for using the resin infusion method rather than the wet hand lay-up I used on the first test piece.

Phil.

groups.yahoo.com/group/Carbondragonbuild...iles/Phil%20Lardner/

Direct link to file: f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/ALMqT3nGUcpm3vTxJR...201%20Feb%202012.xls