Questions questions..........

Gentlemen (and any ladies present): I want to build a 40 size pipe ship. It is to be a F-8. I am trying to figure the best way as to how to do the front LG strut. It needs to clear the pipe! It will have anhedral, etc., and all that is worked out. I know Vic Macaluso built a F-8 based on the SV-11, but I don't remember it was piped.
Any and all comments are greatly appreciated.
TIA
Bill

That is going to pose an interesting engineering problem. I suppose you could make some type of strut that will pass around the pipe (like a wishbone or fork arm). I think the main trick will be getting it strong and compact enough and not weigh too much without getting overly convoluted.
Sounds most interesting.
The (full-size) A-10 has the nose gear offset to clear the gun bay- not sure if that would provide an answer or get the "look" you want for the model.

JAK

Hi John,
That is an idea that i will look into. A "split" gear around the pipe.
How about mounting it on a plywood plaqte similar to the older style wing mounted gear? This could be installed "under" the pipe in the lower section of the fuselage. (??)
I think I need to get hold of Mr. Babcock who has the F-86/F-84 pic I wanted identified, and see how he did it.
Thanks!
Bill

How scale like are you trying to make this? If it is simply a fuselage mounted gear, without all the pizazz and stuff, a "normal" fuselage gear, mounted on two separate bearers, one on each side of the pipe tunnel, works fine. You remove the gear when you need to remove the engine and pipe. That's the way Matt has his mounted.

Hi Len,
I am trying to figure out the best way to mount a nose gear on a pipe ship. Main gear is no problem, done several of those.
Thanks!
Bill

Vic Macaluso published the article and plans on his piped F-8 Crusader in October 1994 Flying Models and he also did a piped F-14 Tomcat in the August 1997 issue of Flying Models.

Hi Col. Tom,
Thanks!
I couldn't remember if the two planes were published.
Mine will be slighly smaller than Vic's, but the same arrangment.
Bill

Vic used an OPS 40VF in the Crusader and bent the 1/8 inch nose gear wire to go around the pipe and then protrude below the fuselage centered. Vic put a what appears to be a PA 40 or 51 in his F-14A and offset the 1/8 inch nose gear on the left side of the nose next to the header off of the engine. Both airplanes are based on the SV-11 and weigh 63 and 66 oz respectively.

>Hi Len,
>I am trying to figure out the best way to mount a nose gear
>on a pipe ship. Main gear is no problem, done several of
>those.
>Thanks!
>Bill
>
>
>Dont worry about the mule going blind 'til you get the cart
>loaded!

You are right. That's why you said, "front" gear, wasn't it? As I recall, someone once mounted a nose gear directly to the engine head. And if you don't want to mount it that far forward, I suppose you could mount it directly to the cowl. But, then, you would have to make the cowl a structural part of the plane. It would require a positive hold down system.

>I suppose you could mount it directly to the
>cowl. But, then, you would have to make the cowl a
>structural part of the plane. It would require a positive
>hold down system.

You can indeed mount it to the cowl. I've done this several tmes. I use a 1/8" ply mount as part of the back side of the hot air duct, orWhere the hot air flows. For fastening tho the plane, I've used two 1/8" dia. dowels into the nose ring, and two 4-40 bolts into tabs that project into the inside, at each side, of the cowl. A rather normal mounting system.

It's been strong enough to have never failed, even though there was at least one hard nose landing. It was hard enough to bend the nose gear back.

I built Macaluso's Crusader a few years back. I'm sure I'll be building another one soon ( just love those semi-scale jobs) The front Landing gear strut is bolted to the tank floor ( 1/8 ply) and bent around the pipe. I think Heman Lee has some pictures of my old Crusader posted on his Aeromaniacs website. Larry, NorCal Circle Jerks:)