Been keeping busy myself, helping my friend John build his experimental category "La Stella " (star ) its a two seater tandom plane duel control .

The plane is hand built using hoop pine and covered in 1.5 hoop pine bending ply the plane is glued with Apoxy resin RO45 no nails /screws ARE USED AT ALL .

The plane weighs approximately 550kilos we hope to be using either a Heath 3 cylinder engine putting out around 100kw or a Subaru boxer EA81 putting out70kw .

The plane lenght is 19 foot with a wing span of 25 foot , we hope to have enough fuel for a 5 hour endurance top speed will be around 150 knots approximately 300km .(depending on engine choice )

Hopefully we will be selling this type of plane as a kit for around $50,000 if you are interested :D

John has single handedly designed the plane and drew the plans on his wooden floor of his home , i am nothing but the MASTERS apprentice but , but it has been a great experience learning the art of hand building a plane , hopefully i will be good enough to fly solo one day .

Photo shows the frame of the plane and also the wing ribs (slightly blurred )oops .

Now u guys know that i do spend some of my time on worthwhile , causes other than chassing skirt .

cheers
michael

 

Ohhh, niiiiice.....

 

Hope you guys know what you're doing.....

 

Impressive! It must have taken ages just to get this far. Those wings are a piece of art!

If you were a true rotary nut L&L, you would put a Hymee supercharged Renesis in it instead and be doing 200knots+ in no time! I guess the fuel consumption would suck though...

Let me know it you decide to fit some bombs to it. I know some people....

 

We anticipate it will take us about 12 months to complete its been 4 months since we started this one , were not in a hurry as John has his single seater plane to play with and his ultralight , but this one will be special in that it can carry a passenger .

I am glad that you appreciate the workmanship that goes into this type of project , maybe we can swap toys one day ? :D

The rotary engine would be nice but way too thirsty , maybe i will settle for the Hymee sticker instead unless Hymee wants to give us one of his supercharged ones on the cheap .

Thanks for the offer of the hardware ,a couple of stinger missiles would fit nicely under the wings .ha ha

cheers
michael

 

LOL WILDCARD :D

When they decide to test fly it maybe you should drop by and say hello, just really quickly

How long do you think it would take you to get there at full speed Flying of course

Regards
Phillip

 

Awesome pictures Michael!

Great to see that you're keeping busy with what looks like a great project. I'll pass the pics on to my brother who is interested in the same sort of project. He has the plans to build a replica of something from the WW1 era (can't remember the name offhand, but a wood and fabric job anyway).

He's recently retired from flying 747s, so should have the time to build now.

Here's a pic of the engine of his current machine (a two seat aerobatic Nanchang - ex Chinese airforce). It shows half the exhaust system - clearly it needs a Hymee version!! :D)

Cheers, Chris

 

Nice workmanship.

Here is the rotary engine you can put on it if da 'plane was a bit smaller

http://www.osengines.com/engines/osmg1400.html

Or you could go a radial...

http://www.osengines.com/engines/osmg1300.html

Aero engines are so cool.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Great idea phillip Wilcard could use the Goldcoast Highway to land :D , as john lives on the highway , we usually cause a traffic jam as people stop and stare at
the plane
Some of the other pilots out at TIAGRA airport , were not game enough to fly our first plane as the skills needed are different to flying a boeing 747 or a Royal airforce F18 , this is all hands on flying no fancy computers helping you take of and land .

Phillip if you come to the Goldcoast you are welcome to come out for a buzz

cheers
michael

 

Chris

When i find them i will post some photos of the first plane we built it resembles a Mustang that was used in WW11.

I agree with you wooden planes have a character of their own , to see the original bits off wood eventually flying a plane is awesome .

cheers
michael

 

Hymee

Those rotary engines are , maybe we can build a version of" honey i shrunk the plane type".

cheers
michael