Work on the New Wright B Flyer Lookalike is progressing in four areas: wing fabrication, design and construction of the propulsion system, tail boom fabrication, and configuration of the aircraft avionics and electrical system.
EAA Chapter 5 (Geauga County, Ohio) is deep into building the wings. They have complete the wing spars and started on the remaining steel parts. You can view their progress by going to the EAA 5 web site and selecting their north bay web cam. Click here for direct access to the camera. When the wings are completed, they will be close to the NACA 35B airfoil.
Design and fabrication of the propulsion system (engine, chain drive, and propellers) is nearing completion. Integration of the final propulsion design into the aircraft center section will be the next step of the design phase. Lycoming has finished the engine build, and we should have it here in the hangar within a week. Lycoming has been a great partner on the project; we really appreciate their support. In addition, parts are being machined in Texas. When the propeller shafts are built we will get them back here for some final machining.
Work on the tail boom continues on the hangar floor. The boom is pretty much complete; we ar
e working on a few rudder designs that we will test on the ground. This will help us pick the final rudder configuration for the new airplane. Green County EAA Chapter 382 member Steve Glass is shown in this picture preparing to weld parts of the tail boom.
The pilots working group has been reviewing the final configuration for the airplane avionics and electrical system. The avionics that we will install in the airplane will let us operate in the airspace environment called NextGen 2020. Completion of the electrical design will also feed the center section design and planning as most of the parts are installed in that part of the airplane. The Wright Brothers would probably be amazed at how well their design can accommodate modern digital systems.
We have started a GoFundMe site to raise money to complete the project. If you are on Facebook please go to our GoFundMe page, https://www.gofundme.com/Wright-B-Flyer, and “Like” us so we can get the word out.
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