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 Many odd blocks of foam and a quart of x-30 pour foam to hold them all together. One large razor sharp kitchen knife and one week of slowly carving thin slivers of foam.
There is an engine mount and a ATPI T53 turbine engine core inside all the foam. The wood disc at the back represents the back of the MT spinner.
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It took even longer to carve the lower cowling. The shape of the fuselage was reproduced in TurboCad and the rear portion was matched to a low drag symmetrical airfoil. Wood templates for the side and top profiles were cut from thin plywood and the foam was cut and sanded to the correct shape.
The result was quite pleasing.
Before covering with two layers of Carbon bid, the foam surface was first given a thin coat of micro followed by one layer of Dacron peelply. |
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The Carbon was covered by yet more peelply and the whole allowed to cure.
The cowling spills slightly onto the wing roots which were extended inboard to match the narrower profile at the rear.
Note the two "real" NACA scoops at the top sized for the T53 turbine inlet.
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The peelply was then removed and the cowling was cut into top and bottom halves. The carbon was then removed from the inner dacron layer and the foam removed. More work included making flanges and adding a third carbon layer onto the inside. The Cowling was then filled with micro based filler and sanded smooth. Total weight was less than half the weight of the factory supplied standard Velocity cowling. |
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The kicker is that the ATP turboprop engine never materialized and we had to repeat this exercise for the T58-8F engine.
This latest cowling was made over a reusable plug and has a long way to go before completion. |
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