FTS Projects - Page 13

AchimEngels · 2 November 2003, 08:43 PM

Hello Folks,

I am very happy to see that others are inspired by our work.

This is an image of the upcoming project of another fellow who has purchased our plans and is working from these.

"I completely redraw them on AutoCAD full size and then printing them fullsize. They will then be used to help redraw them on plywood sheets much as you have done."

Great to see other project come along like this.

Enjoy!

Achim

AchimEngels · 5 November 2003, 10:05 PM

Finally the reinforcements in the engine compartement have been put in place.

This time I have some impressions of these for you.

It took quite some time to bend these tubes in such small radii, but I am also quite satisfied with the results. *

I will start today to work on the lower wing attachements.

Enjoy!

Achim

AchimEngels · 7 November 2003, 08:42 AM

Ich sag einfach "Hello Again!",

Now, that the fuselages are almost completed I have spent some time today to check out how to do and to prepare "mass production" of the turnbuckles required for the cross bracing of the two fuselages.

The first thing we have to do is to finish up Wulffo´s original turnbuckles. These have one eye bolt and one forked bolt. The forked bold has to be replaced by an eyebolt as well.

Doing an eyebolt is not the problem, the problem starts when trying to create new eyebolts that show the same creation marks as those already there on the other end of the turnbuckle´s barrel. *

Well here are my results so far.

[sup]First steps on the lathe[/sup]

[sup]While cutting the thread[/sup]

[sup]Finished with thread[/sup]

[sup]Getting close[/sup]

[sup]The first one finished complete with both eyebolts on top and as it was before below.[/sup]

[sup]Oh boy....such a long way to go...[/sup]

Indeed, a long way to go.

And thats not all! *

Once Wulffo´s "one sided" turnbuckles are complete, we have to do another set completely with both bolts and the barrel........

Enjoy!

Achim

joegertler · 7 November 2003, 09:52 AM

Achim; Have you checked with Holger at DTM? I sent him boxes full of original turnbuckle barrels and both types of ends. Maybe you have already checked with him and the museum plans to keep and use them all. But, if not, I would suggest talking to him. I would think he would trade some for other fittings you both may need, that you could make for the trade.

AchimEngels · 7 November 2003, 10:29 AM

Hello Joe,

great to hear from you again! Hope all is well.

That´s a good idea and certainly worth checking out.

I don´t think I will do this, since Prof. Dr. Dr. Holger Steinle was not very interested in what we do in the past years and did not respond much to our requests, but I think Wulffo should give this a try, indeed.

Wulffo: Are you listening? (you certainly are! *

)

Doing these turnbuckles on our own is not much a problem, just a issue of time. I am not that much interested in using actual original parts with our plane as Wulffo is with his. I am more interested in using parts which are done new, but as the originals have been done. This however does not mean that I would neglect using original turnbuckles if they are offered to me :

Therefore our barrels and eyebolts will be little different from Wulffo´s.

Achim

AchimEngels · 10 November 2003, 06:13 PM

Hello,

I have recently received the following two images of the restoration of the engine.

Wulffo sent these to me whithout many words, just saying that all parts are dissasembled and the parts are all checked in a metallurgical/chemical way to make sure they will work properly.

All parts that need replacement will be rebuild by the workshop of Dirk Bende / Koenigswinter - Germany, who is the responsible one for this engine restoration.

I hope that Dirk will find the time to post some images of his work as well since his comments may be way more interesting then what I could say in this field.

I am most excited about the first run up of the engine....

*

Wulffo also mentioned that he found another D.III engine which is in not so good condition, but could serve as a static display for our earlier Fokker D.VII 228/18. At least for as long as we have found another working and restorable engine.

Speaking of it: In case we find another engine - either for sale or for loan - we will also certify the FTS aircraft, but this one we will try to have certified as an aerobatic. We have been encouraged for that by the report of the certification inspector who suggested that this could be done without problems, judging the structure of the airframe....well....it all depands on the engine question...so keep your eyes and ears open and us informed *;D

Enjoy!

Achim

AchimEngels · 14 November 2003, 06:35 PM

Hello All,

I am still busy with these damned turnbuckles. Buying them would be much more easy!

But hey! I like torture *:

.

Anyway, to show you some other progress I have decided to go and show some of the other stuff.

I have finally finished the drawing for the fuselage. This one represents the early built serial run which is in most respects identical to the aircraft we build, the Fokker D.VII 228/18.

The scale of this drawing is 1/5 and its size is about 900 mm x 1.200 mm

I know there will now come up the question for the sources we used to develop this drawing.

Here we go:

The major source for the basic frame layout was a drawing done by the Air Technical Division of the US Airforce at Dayton Airforce base in the 1920ies. They did a very close study of a late Fokker build D.VII that was send - among others - as a reparation to the US after the war was over. These studies do comprise a detailed report including some drawings and metallurgical examinations. This is very useful as a source. Among the documents I have I have a microfilm roll that contained the fuselage drawing for this aircraft.

Unfortunately the source drawing provided all dimensions in inches, so that I had to convert them to metric dimensions. This of course may provide a source on inaccuracy, but certainly not to a large scale.

This information of a late built fuselage was double checked against other research documents we have such as the entire strenght test documents done in 1918 by Idflieg at Adlershof (thanks to the archive of Peter Grosz), Allied reports of captured planes and Fokker Factory still photographs taken during construction of the different production runs of the aircraft.

From the result of these investigations the configuration of the fuselage was reconstructed to show the early production run.

This drawing -along with all the others we will develop during the build of the aircraft - are of course also available to others. To find out more about it just point your browser to this link:

http://www.collectors-edition.com/f-t-s_ze..._preisliste.htm

The drawings are not available as prints on paper, but as electronic files. They are available as JPG´s which can be send by E-mail and viewed on the screen. The quality of these is good enough to print them out in a readable size. Another option is to send them as .TIF files burned on CD-ROM which allows a full size plot.

Hope this is something that is of interest as well.

Enjoy!

Achim

P.S. Will post images of the finished turnbuckles as soon as I am through with Wulffo´s

AchimEngels · 15 November 2003, 05:57 AM

The turnbuckle saga continues.

Today I have finished all brutes of Wulffo´s eye bolts.

They all look like this one now.

All that is left to do ( *:P ) is to drill the holes into them.

Having had some time left today I have decided to play around and try one of the turnbuckles as we will use them for our repro.

The next two images show the difference between both types.

[sup]Wulffo´s altered turnbuckle[/sup]

[sup]Turnbuckle with different barrel and shorter bolts as found in surviving aircraft[/sup]

This is not the final shape! The dimension of the barrel is correct but it should be slightly less tapered. This one was - as said - just a try to see how it works. It took me about 2 hours to get this "prototype" done !!!

Enjoy!

Achim