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 "Cloudster" Construction Project Session #45

Speed 400 Cloudster Project
 
The next step in completing the recessed leading edge is to make the two curved portions of the leading edge and glued them in place as shown below. This now has the center section recessed leading edge firmly tied into the temporary leading edge, which can now be removed. Notice that the inside curvature of these two pieces is finished, but a fair amount of trimming and sanding has yet to be done to shape the outside curvature of the recessed leading edge.
 
Using an X-Acto razor saw, the temporary leading edge was cut away and separated from the primary wing structure as shown below. It has served its purpose well to hold the wing structure true and accurate until the recessed leading edge could be built.
 
I have spent most of the day today carefully trimming, sanding, and shaping the difficult curved portions of the recessed leading edge. The top view of the recessed leading edge is shown below.
 
The bottom view of the recessed leading edge is shown below. A considerable amount of time was spent making the two curved pieces that form the recessed leading edge symmetrical. The curvature of the left side was finished first. Then a paper template was made and traced onto the bottom of the right side, which was most helpful in getting the two curvatures the same.
 
This shows the finished recessed sculptured leading edge. Notice the three turbulator spar extensions and the way they tie into the center section's recessed leading edge. Also notice that top portion of the 3/8" X 1/2" leading edge has been partially trimmed down along the top, but there is still quite a bit of work before the leading edge is completely shaped. 
 
Work has stopped for the day. The next step will be construct the center section's remaining structure and planking behind the main spar, which will also include the rear wing attachment.
 
However, this will not get done tomorrow. My grandson (Steve) is coming over tomorrow morning (before he returns to Texas A&M on Monday where he is a junior in computer science engineering) at 10:00 a.m. to do some "brain surgery" on my computer. :O<  He is going to first save and then delete all files in the memory of the two partitioned disk drives. He will then remove the partition between the two drives so that there will be only one large composite disk drive. Then he restore all of the software with the six recovery CD's and reload all of my files. Thank goodness for smart computer savvy grandsons....................Tandy

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