Vickers Swallow

[Lost Cosmonauts]

Half in jest but hydraulics might be easier in a 3d print than a mechanical linkage as you could create embedded fluid channels during the print - only hassle would be flushing them before post curing so that stray liquid resin doesn't gel and block the tubing

[PR19_Kit]

Hah! Now you're talking Alistair! 

If there's one part of hydraulics engineering that I'm expert at it's flushing systems and ensuring they're cleared of the very smallest bits of crud and stuff!

[Rheged]

Wow, so wings sweeping AND changing incidence angle, AND pivoting engines! what could possibly go wrong!! 

And all without computers and fly by wire...

Yup but he did have a slide rule  and the kids actually did maths at school back then 

How many modern youths would recognise a slide rule even if it got up and slapped them? 

I've inherited my dad's cylindrical slide rule.   It's fairly huge and is the equivalent of  nearly 5 feet of linear rule.   It belonged to his office, and was being slung out when calculators and then computers became available..................so he salvaged it and eventually  taught his grandsons (my boys) to use it!

[Steel Penguin]

id recognise it, but havent a clue how to use one,  however i can RTFM  it might take a few readthroughs and some examples but, im certain id get close enough.

[kitbasher]

Used a slide rule at school but would rather use what my son use to call in his pre-school years a 'countilator'!

[The Rat]

Guys ya know they did have hydraulics back then 
Barnes Wallis was a pretty smart cookie so i reckon he might have used hydraulics instead of cables or both  oh and a slide rule 

Ooh, you 'ad it easy, we woulda killed to 'ave 'ydraulics. Me dad used to make us kids run back and forth in airframe and turn cranks to operate rudder 'n such. One time me sister got stuck int' wingtip tryin' ta operate aileron, stuck in there for a week she was, until she lost weight.

[PR19_Kit]

I've still got my Thornton slide rule I bought in the mid-60s.

[Wardukw]

Guys ya know they did have hydraulics back then 
Barnes Wallis was a pretty smart cookie so i reckon he might have used hydraulics instead of cables or both  oh and a slide rule 

Ooh, you 'ad it easy, we woulda killed to 'ave 'ydraulics. Me dad used to make us kids run back and forth in airframe and turn cranks to operate rudder 'n such. One time me sister got stuck int' wingtip tryin' ta operate aileron, stuck in there for a week she was, until she lost weight.

  Ratty ...that reminds me of Parkinson and Clarkson talking on Top Gear 

[Lost Cosmonauts]

I've still got my Thornton slide rule I bought in the mid-60s.

As a set with a half Wagon Wheel protractor and Toblerone ruler?

[The Wooksta!]

You jest, but there one episode of Project Binky where Nick makes a prototype locking system with a chocolate digestive.

[PR19_Kit]

I've still got my Thornton slide rule I bought in the mid-60s.

As a set with a half Wagon Wheel protractor and Toblerone ruler?

No, but I had those as well. They were essential stuff for engineers back then.

[NARSES2]

I've inherited my dad's cylindrical slide rule.   It's fairly huge and is the equivalent of  nearly 5 feet of linear rule.   It belonged to his office, and was being slung out when calculators and then computers became available..................so he salvaged it and eventually  taught his grandsons (my boys) to use it!

I saw one of those once and just stared at it with no idea whatsoever of how to even begin using it  Nowadays you can find slide rules of various kinds on display along with some of the mechanical "grinder" calculators we used to use and comptometers etc at the UK's National Computing museum at Bletchley Park.

[Gondor]

I've still got my Thornton slide rule I bought in the mid-60s.

As a set with a half Wagon Wheel protractor and Toblerone ruler?

No, but I had those as well. They were essential stuff for engineers back then.

Not forgetting Sandwidges as wedges

Gondor

[Wardukw]

My dad had a few slide rules and i did follow in his path yet ive never had or needed a slide rule..got a crap load of verniers tho..from small ..100mm up to 600mm ..havent used that one in years ..used to do quite a bit of work with large dia pipe.
I think dew to technology a slide rule is very old school ..4 of my verniers can be plugged into a computer and store all measurements  and those dont cost much at all.
Angle finders too..i just use a app on my phone for that ..i dont even know where my magnetic angle finder is anymore..sign of the times guys.
I prefer hard waffles for my wedges..sandwiches get eaten to often 

[PR19_Kit]

In an attempt to get this thread back on its original subject  Here's some pics of progress on the Swallow.



The top view of the two main assemblies so far. I've done a fair amount of PSR around the retractable, circular cockpit as I had to do a lot of filing of the main forward fuselage moulding to get it to fit, and that left the edges of the hole somewhat raw. I also PSR'd the edges where the upper and lower halves fit together, and I'll probably have to do some more once the model's primered.

The aft section is now glued together with the two wings sandwiched between the two fuselage halves. The wings needed a little filing and sanding to get them to fit properly, and as I'd broken the edges of the wing pivot fairings while trying to enlarge the holes I did a bit of sacrificial surgery on the original parts to build up the pivot fairings.




Lower view showing the landing gear bays, the rear ones of which stretch between the two fuselage halves. Some of the fairing parts of the aft bays had snapped off before the build started, but I've glued them back in place OK.

Now I'm in the middle of filing and sanding the mating joints of the two fuselage halves, which isn't as straightforward as I'd have liked. While the rear half flattened out nicely, filing the aft end of the front half just doesn't want to produce a flat surface, and I'm afraid I'll have to glue the centre areas and then do some heavy PSR on the outer gaps. I may drill both halves and fit a piano wire strengthening rod down the centre line.

Alastair says it's a determined tail sitter as it's moulded and I'm thinking of drilling a largish diameter recess in the underside, just forward of the cockpit, and to fill that with Liquid Gravity in an attempt to get it to stand properly.