Aquila Sailplane

thingiverse

This is something I made for fun and thought I'd share. It is a fairly scale version of the old Aquila sailplane that has been around for ages. I had one way back in the early 80's and loved it. The fuse profile is very close and the airfoil is the original Aquila shape with just a little thickness added. The size is based on a 400mm wing span. It's a two piece wing. 200mm is a big as I can print on my Ender 3. It does fly although not the greatest. Small planes like this are a challenge to make fly very well. I filled the cavity in the nose with lead shot and put a piece of tape over it on the original models. I think filling it with something like epoxy and/or using clay/playdoh to smooth the hole would also work well. I also added a fuse without the cavity and launch hook if you just want a model to hang someplace. I printed in PLA. My real reason for even starting this was to see if something like this cold be done in PLA and still be strong enough to fly. That is not a problem. Like I said, it isn't the greatest flyer but I like the way it looks. My plan is to find a big cliff and toss one or two off just to see how the fly with a lot of air to stabilize out. There are two wing sets. One is a tapered wing with the correct root dimensions and tapered to look nice. The other wing is more to the original Aquila wing dimensions that is made up of two panels. That would be the "Standard" wing. This was kind of fun. I think my next project will be a Hobie Hawk............... Build Notes: . I print at .12 or .08 layer heights. I have a little trouble getting a smooth finish with .08 but you can end up with a little lighter plane in the end if your printer will do it. . I print with one bottom layer, 3 wall, and 3 top layers trying to keep parts as light as possible but strong enough to take land. . I used a 15% grid pattern that is oriented at 45 degrees to the length of the wing. If you do standard ribs oriented perpendicular to the wing length with a line infill, they have a tendency to buckle if you try to set a bend in the wings. . All of the assembly with CA. First glue the wing halves to the fuse halves. That way you can press down on both the wing and the fuse against a flat surface and get good alignment. Then glue the two halves together with CA using the two holes in the wing roots as alignment aids. The holes are sized for the 1.75mm PLA. . The wing alignment holes are each 10mm deep so cut a few pieces of PLA just under 20mm for the alignment pins. . Glue the stabilizer in last but use it unglued to help align the two fuse halves properly at the tail while gluing the fuse gogether. . Balance is about mid wing. The rudder and stab are both "grooved" so they can be bent to help in controlling the glide. . After assembly, I put a bow in the wing to help stabilize flight by simply bowing up the wings a few inches and taping them in place and let set for 24 hours. When you take the tape off, there is a nice enough set that takes place to give a smooth curve to the wings. I included a picture (with the standard wing) of what I'm trying to describe. Updates: 04.26.21: Added a set of "Standard Wings" that more closely resemble the actual Aquila wing plan. (Early indications are that the standard wings fly a lot better) 04.27.21: V2 of the fuse is coming. The current one is only 2mm wide in the back to keep the weight down. the problem is that it is just too fragile. The tail tends to break off. So stand by. The V2 Fuse has a slightly larger nose cavity and is 3mm thick in the back. If my test planes start breaking, I'll probably do another one at 4mm thick. 04.29.21: I replaced the stabilizer with a new one that is a little thinner that fits better. There is no real profile change so I did not change the version number. 05.06.21: Added the fuse with no cavity or launch hook. ..........