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Now that we've established the foundation for the drive system which consist of just one main support tube (for each side) -Sorry if I keep repeating this part, its really the heart of the whole system.  Let's build up the drive chain.  If you review my previous posting of my drawing, you'll also notice I included two short extra pieces of tubing.  These two short pieces will be used to hold the rest of the drive chain tubular system.  Sounds fragile?  Well, yeah it is.  I used epoxy instead of glue for added strength at this stage.  Now, I cut a pair of extra long tubes that will contain the chains within.  Looking at the last two pictures, you can easily see how they're being "framed up" with small extra pieces of tubing.  It's also at this stage, that I will admit I trial-fitted, cut, trial fitted, sanded a bit, trial fitted again until everything came within tolerance.  On the last photo, the drive chain system is sort of "upside down" laid flat with the main support tube on top being supported by the two small pieces.  Notice too, the short red tape?  This will be the flat metal reinforcement strip used on the Wright's drive system.  This will show up in my next posting. 

Sky9pilot wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2017 at 11:06pm:

"DITTO" What Tom stated, the only Flyer this detailed is in the Smithsonian.

Let's break down the drive system.  It's really very simple.  I'm going to focus on the left side as that seems to be the most "complex."  The main focus is just one support tube.  It's from just this one main support tube that everything else is fabricated around.  I admit my drawings aren't the best, but they'll show the basic steps into building up the drive system.  Now, from my drawing, can you spot the differences between the "professional artist's rendering" and the actual photo from my previous posting?  Also, look at where the chain is supposedly wrapped around the engine axle gears.  The artist's rendering shows the axle gear to be far wider in diameter than what the actual engine is shown on the photo.  This is, but just one of a few examples of the misinformation and confusion surrounding the Wright Flyer.  Here, in the last picture, I jumped ahead just a bit and super-imposed the main tube over the Guillow's kit wooden version of the drive system while holding and extra member of one of the cross-tubes for the drive chain for photo illustration.  I should point out that this singular support tube (one for each side) is attached to the axle housing of the engine and the other end is attached to the tubular housing of the propeller shaft.  This is the only means of attachment for these two support tubes to the airframe.

Good day everyone.  Aside from the engine, one of the major contentious issues I think that faces most modelers when building the Wright Flyer, is the challenge of fabricating the seemingly complex drive chains and their tubular structures.  I thought I would also share with you that this area is fraught with misinformation and confusion even from supposedly "informed sources."  As on the completed Wright engine, let's start out with a few pictures of the completed project and we'll go from there.

Today, we'll come full circle and finish the engine.  Just a couple of more steps to add a bit of "finesse" for a little more eye-popping detailing.  As we all know, when it comes to the Wright Flyer, people will definitely focus on the engine.  In the first view,  compared to the picture of the real engine, we noticed the absence of the oil line.  The next picture shows just a small piece of copper wire about the appropriate sized diameter and length with a some small slices of transparent tape to simulate the connecting joints wrapped around the wire, and the whole assembly is then wrapped around the engine block.  This next step requires us to purchase a small set of gears available through most hobby outlets; and of course, the all-important chains.  The chains are available through arts & crafts stores and even Wal Mart has them in the jewelry department.  They come in a variety of sizes and colors.  Here, I just happen to be holding the brass-colored ones, but they also come in metallic silver, black, gold, etc.  I used the silver colored ones on the engine.  The gears were simply glued to a large piece of copper wire and the glued to the engine block along with a small fabricated "slack adjuster" attached between the two.  Then the chains were cut to the approx. length and simply wrapped around the gears starting at the *Bottom.*  I emphasized the word,  *bottom" because its the least visible area where the ends of the chain meets and nobody will notice any discrepancies.    As you can see here, it's really turning out to be a jewel in itself!  We're almost finished.

Skyediamonds, great job on a beautiful engine . How many horse power?


Bob