how to build a replica Kingfisher for the Uss Texas?

[Ken]

USS North Carolina Museum:

http://inflight.squarespace.com/feature ... -kind.html

[carlisle1926]

I drove over to the Texas today to brainstorm a bit. I took a few pictures that I thought some of you might enjoy. Turret number three that once had the Kingfisher catapult attached to it shows no real sign of there ever having been such a device on top.

[Cherrybomber13]

When did they put a battleship on the National Mall in DC?

[CAPFlyer]

That's the San Jacinto monument. Got a huge star on top of it, so it's easily distinguished from the Washington Monument.

It's also 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument and made of cordova shell stone instead of marble. And before anyone says that Texans made it taller on purpose, the monument was built by a Public Works grant during the 1930's and approved by Washington, D.C.

[dbrown]

Did a model of the USS Texas - if you want to do one in a really small scale.

[carlisle1926]

Did a model of the USS Texas - if you want to do one in a really small scale.

That's a great model! I hope they give me the go ahead to start the giant USS Texas model soon. My version will be all steel and require tons of hours of welding and I can only hope it comes out as detailed and nice as yours. Making something that detailed in small scale like you did is a major achievement.

[Ken]

IIRC, the fiberglass mold is taken from an original to ensure the shapes are correct, not necessarily to create multiples, although this becomes an obvious bonus. I've seen fiberglass P-51s outside restaurants and such which included all sorts of details such as dzus fasteners and whatnot and were quite good. Other than finding someone willing to allow their airplane to be molded, is there a downside?

OTOH, the foam carving idea sounds fine too and I suspect that there are CAD programs today that could cut the foam quickly and easily versus the hand-made craftsmanship, plans interpretation, and number crunching that might have been required 25 years ago. If this route was chosen, would it be possible/practical to alter the airfoil shape in such a fashion as to not affect its visual appearance, but make it less "lifty" with regard to winds, storms, etc?

Ken

[bdk]

On the airfoil section, you could just make it symmetrical and the lift would be determined by the angle of attack. You could do the airfoil upside-down, but that might look odd depending on the original section. You could do a symmetrical airfoil and install it a couple of degrees nose-down to kill lift further.