posted 08/26/02
RV-10 PROGRESS

The prototype shop continues to work on the fuselage. Scott McDaniel is making the plug and mold for the empennage fairing…a tedious task involving much sanding and careful finishing.

                              Click on the photo below to enlarge it.
          

Miles Towner and Phil Duyck are working on two versions of the mid-cabin. One is intended to be mock-up we will take to airshows. It will be a true representation of the cabin, baggage area, seats and wing root, so people can "try the airplane on for size." We hope to have this at Sun N Fun next April. What is known in engineerspeak as the "flight article" –in other words, the actual flying airplane -- is a few steps behind the mock-up. It incorporates many refinements and suggestions garnered from experience on the mock-up.
                             
                            Click on the photo below to enlarge it.
           

                              Click on the photo below to enlarge it.
            


Forward of the firewall, the big news (literally) is that we have acquired an engine. If you are used to four cylinder Lycomings, this IO-540 is one big hunk. We used a lift truck and pallet jack to get it upstairs and put it on the floor behind Rian Johnson’s desk. He has the job of converting the engine into a dimensionally accurate solid model in his computer. Judging by the muttering and snorting, along with sotto voce questioning of various software writers’ intelligence and ancestry, coming from his cubbyhole, this is not a trivial task. Once he’s done, though, we will have the basic tool we need to design the cowl, the baffle system, etc.

  



        We'll be keeping you posted on the progress of our prototype.