Well Andy, your practice bomb certainly looks a bit more refined than the original...but maybe not quite as durable.  Thanks again.

Ok...cut out some of the clutter within the wheelwells...for the sake of appearance.  Construction looks like square-sets on the Comstock...but is all very lightweight wood.

Neal

Landing gear is actually NOT very sophisticated...as retraction systems go.  As an early retractable, it was purely mechanical...crank up, crank down...have included a photo of the bicycle chain that the cockpit-located hand-crank connected to.  It was NOT a quick operation as many turns of the crank were required.  (Ever thrown a chain while riding a bicycle?  Of course you have.  This system was no different.  According to Kermit Weeks (F4F owner), cockpit was actually equipped with bolt-cutters to alleviate just such an occurrence.) This type system was quite prevalent during the '30's...used in many ac types...including Sikorsky's flying boats.  Largest ac of note was the Consolidated Catalina.  BUT...it had its drawbacks...very narrow track...skittish...was not rigid...prone to many failures for a number of reasons...ac weight being critical.  Have seen a video of an F4F in a carrier landing...one wheel strikes deck first...compressing that side of LG...causing ac to dramatically swerve to that side...only saved from going over the side by arrester cable and hook!  Kermit Weeks has a nice video...helmet cam...that illustrates perfectly the labor required to raise and lower the LG in a Wildcat. 

Just want to add...have read many supposed aviation historian comments critical of the Buffalo (F2A) LG...which is all BS...because although they look different...actually operated the same (Buffalo used cables instead of chains) and were equally failure-susceptible.  Early retractables....  At least the Buffalo was NOT narrow-tracked.

Got some wire installed...basic LG.

Neal

Thanks for the research, Andy.

I look forward to your solution for the landing gear.  That is one complex retraction setup.  It reminds me of Grummans "fat birds" gear setup.  F3f & F4f.

Airwar.ru is a Russian historical aircraft resource that often has photos seldom seen elsewhere.

http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/sww2/sbc/

Understand the difficulties with the different types. I guess the early designers had the problem of new types coming out all the time during this era.

Your current cowl looks great!

I use 1/32" sheet too.Have to remember to allow for the sheet thickness by sanding the formers down a bit.

Never had much luck with paper coverings.

I know you're not to make assumptions but...
I assume templete M is a paper pattern to wrap the cowl with.  Are you going to use paper/cardstock to finish off the cowling or are you going to wrap with thin balsa sheet?  The curious me can't wait to see the answer!

Kittyfritters wrote on Mar 14^th, 2023 at 3:08pm:


My thoughts as well.