1907 dirigible

[hawkeye2an]

I am attempting to build 5 aircraft flown by a local by the name of Art Hartman.
This is the second.
It is a 1907 dirigible and I only have 1 photo and 1 dimension to go by (approx. 38 feet length)
Thought about vacuforming it, even made an attempt at it using a couple of sweet potatoes as a form, but didn't like the results. 2 - 1-litre soda bottles are the basis of the airbag. Building the framework out of .030 styrene. Will be rigging it with 2# test fishing line as with the flyer I built earlier (see separate post).
The rope net will be made from plastic onion bag material sprayed with a couple different brown/tans.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work so far. This one is going to be very interesting !

 

[B-17engineer]

Good work!!

 

[Wayne Little]

Wow! This looks real interesting.....looking forward to more!

 

[B-17engineer]

How's this one coming along?

 

[hawkeye2an]

It's on the back burner at the moment. Tried to solder brass rod to get the look I want and my soldering gun gave out on me. I've still get one for sweating pipes together but that's a little large. I may just stick with styrene rod. I'll post some pics soon.

 

[B-17engineer]

Sounds good!

 

[Wurger]

Yep...

 

[vikingBerserker]

The soda bottles were an ingenious idea, cannot wait for more.

 

[Wayne Little]

Me too!

 

[hawkeye2an]

Well this got pulled back up due to the chance to display several of Art's aircraft at the local Airshow this Sept. The theme is Iowa's 100 years of flight and Art was the first Iowan to fly a heavier-than-air craft in May of 1910. First three pics are of the balloon part in progress. 2 - 1 ltr Mountain Dew bottles form the base and it is being carefully covered in Bondo to compete the gas bag.

 

[hawkeye2an]

Next up is the build up of the gondola frame.

Pic 1 - first 2 crossbars
Pic 2 - jig in place for adding the top crossbar
Pic 3 - starting to look like it should

Tomorrow, STURDY rope work begins. Got a great idea for how to do this from a buddy in the local club. Hopefully successful pics to follow.

 

[Wayne Little]

Man...thats looking real good!

 

[Lucky13]

Awesome!!

 

[vikingBerserker]

I agree, that's pretty sweet!

 

[B-17engineer]

Great work!!!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent work Hawkeye!!!

 

[Airframes]

Bl**dy marvellous.

 

[hawkeye2an]

Working on the rigging.

My 2 new favorite tools. Curved cuticle scissors and cutters, both found in the Women's cosmetics dept. Handle on the scissors modified to fit my big fingers.

 

[hawkeye2an]

Gondola is now complete