Cayley glider - the coachman carrier

[tnuag]

I had to do a new post because of the number of photos, so here it is!

The model depicts the first aircraft to carry a man. It was designed by Sir George Cayley and flew in 1853, carrying Sir George's coachman (reputedly named John Appelby). At the end of the flight the coachman is supposed to have said "Sir George, I wish to tender my resignation. I was hired to drive, not fly!" The kit includes these two figures, and has decals for the woodgrain finish of the car.

Neil

The finished model with the coachman sitting in the car and Sir George Cayley standing alongside.

[HOLMES]

What a cute COOL build...

[Marcos Borges]

It turned into a very nice model Neil!

Congratulations.

Cheers,

Marcos.

Edited March 7, 2011 by Marcos Borges

[MattC]

Lovely, I'm really enjoying this series of builds, I once made a flying model of the cayley glider, which although it only drifted down a grassy slope about 4ft up, looked fantastically nostalgic.

My mum did have kittens when she found my mate and I trying to make a full size Lillienthal glider from garden canes and bed sheets however.

I wish I had the ££££ to build up a collection of these things.

lovely to see such a seldom modelled era being done justice to

Matt

[tnuag]

Lovely, I'm really enjoying this series of builds, I once made a flying model of the cayley glider, which although it only drifted down a grassy slope about 4ft up, looked fantastically nostalgic.

My mum did have kittens when she found my mate and I trying to make a full size Lillienthal glider from garden canes and bed sheets however.

I wish I had the ££££ to build up a collection of these things.

lovely to see such a seldom modelled era being done justice to

Matt

I'm glad you are enjoying it, the Fokker Spin and Demoiselle are about finished, and a Lillienthal glider is planned. The thing I am particularly pleased with is the spoked wheels - I took a chance with our development etch and it worked!

Neil

Edited March 7, 2011 by tnuag

[MattC]

I was wondering how you managed those, I am rather impressed, and success with that sort of opens a door to all sorts of possibilities (or at least, experiments), thanks for sharing your work, I look forward to seeing more.

Matt

[tnuag]

I was wondering how you managed those, I am rather impressed, and success with that sort of opens a door to all sorts of possibilities (or at least, experiments), thanks for sharing your work, I look forward to seeing more.

Matt

It is a question of tolerances - the disc is 10 thou or .25 mm smaller than the hole in the tyre or rim. We use CATIA to produce models which are produced by sterolithography, and provided everything fits we make moulds and cast them. We do try to keep the costs as low as possible - these methods don't come cheap though. We are currently working on our first full resin kit with CATIA - there is a lot to learn!!

Neil

[MattC]

Just thinking about this, if you drew up a negative of the wheel in 3D, then laser cut that into a solid block of Alloy, could you then not cast one piece spoked wheels in resin?

You'd have to cut two mould halves, top and bottom out of an alloy billet, and then use the "axle" extended out through the top of one half as the pouring point for the resin.

If that makes sense?

[tnuag]

Just thinking about this, if you drew up a negative of the wheel in 3D, then laser cut that into a solid block of Alloy, could you then not cast one piece spoked wheels in resin?

You'd have to cut two mould halves, top and bottom out of an alloy billet, and then use the "axle" extended out through the top of one half as the pouring point for the resin.

If that makes sense?

The spokes of the Cayley are six thou square in cross-section. I don't think I would want to try that in resin. Also, by using nicke-siver for the material they are probably as close as you are going to get to true colours - thus no painting,, and so no increase in size.

We always have to remember cost. We try not to compromise on quality, but this is actually the cheapest way of producing good wheels because we get 80 - 100 sets out of spokes out of one sheet of etchings. The most expensive material is time - you would take roughly half an hour per set in resin vs a minute to cut up the etched fret.

There was a firm called Impact who produced a serieas of early aircraft in the ninteteen sixties (later the moulds were taken over by Pyro). Their wheels were in clear poylstyrene with raised spokes but very difficult to paint well.

Neil

Edited March 8, 2011 by tnuag

[MattC]

6 thou? Cripes, no, that wouldn't work at all, well, it might with very clever moulding, but I know next to nothing about it to be honest, it was just a thought, based on some playing around I have been doing with a laser cutter for RC stuff.

What are you using for the flying surfaces? I had thought about doing something similar in a slightly larger scale using litespan as a surface but found it annoyingly prone to slacken and a little too shrinky for the light structure.

I think japanese (esaki) tissue would work quite well, but whatever you are using looks the business.

[tnuag]

6 thou? Cripes, no, that wouldn't work at all, well, it might with very clever moulding, but I know next to nothing about it to be honest, it was just a thought, based on some playing around I have been doing with a laser cutter for RC stuff.

What are you using for the flying surfaces? I had thought about doing something similar in a slightly larger scale using litespan as a surface but found it annoyingly prone to slacken and a little too shrinky for the light structure.

I think japanese (esaki) tissue would work quite well, but whatever you are using looks the business.

WE are putting cream litespan in the kits and it is attached round the edges with superglue.