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F/A-18A Tail Angle


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Can anyone tell me what the angle should be off vertical? I am modifying the old Hasegawa YF-18 model in 1/32 and in place of the kit vertical stabilizers I have the Avionix A tail mod that comes with their resin cockpit. Since they don’t fit in the existing slot the angle will have to be set but I cannot seem to find this piece of information so far. Thanks in advance! Chris

heres a pic of the pins i made to align them and hold them in place while the epoxy sets

8D5DB8F6-8B68-47B4-83C7-C3F9A9CCE363-L.j

 

Edited by TheMongoose
Ref to resin manuf
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I drilled and pinned mine. Here it is using my handy iphone level app lol i hate finding new uses for this stupid thing. After a double check I’ll spot glue them before using epoxy to lock them into position. Let me know if you all see anything goofy in this pic?

53CAECEC-12EE-43FC-88F2-FD6EDFEC2160-L.j

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6 hours ago, TheMongoose said:

does this look like I’m measuring it correctly? It seems kinda vertical so I thought i better check and make sure.

 

It does. I checked with multiple pictures and some of the better line drawings, and they all have angles of 19°, not 12°. That's not total proof (line drawings are sometimes mistaken, angles are not always preserved depending on the focal length of photographs), but they are consistent with each other. That's what I used on my F-18 models.

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11 hours ago, spejic said:

 

It does. I checked with multiple pictures and some of the better line drawings, and they all have angles of 19°, not 12°. That's not total proof (line drawings are sometimes mistaken, angles are not always preserved depending on the focal length of photographs), but they are consistent with each other. That's what I used on my F-18 models.

A 9 October 1981 McAir General Arrangement drawing has them angled out from vertical by 20 degrees. The tips are 11.8 feet apart and the roots are 79.5 inches apart, toed out by one degree. Measurements are to the center of the airfoil.

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55 minutes ago, TheMongoose said:

Superb reference checks. Thanks gang! I will make adjustments and get these glued in shortly now.

 

Yep, my fault for not checking my pubs before answering. The verticals toe out 1 degree at the leading edge and cant 20 degrees from the vertical. I believe I got the 12 degrees from that 1 and 20 using my memory (which proved to be a bad thing). My reference is A1-F18AC-GAI-000, which is the O-level General Aircraft Information Technical Manual.

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