3D Printed Spitfire

[Drone 5]

Hi All
Just thought I would post some pics of my latest challenge which is almost complete.

[Drone 5]

Pic 2

[Drone 5]

Pic 3

[FPVSteve]

fantastic work!

[Coyote]

That's really cool, your own design or a thingiverse ?

[iwan_canobi]

Nice one, looks great! Need to try this sometime, just worried it wouldn't survive landings in a field with no runway!

[Drone 5]

It's a 3dlabprint.com Spitfire.

Don't know how it will survive a crash. Will let you all know when I maiden it.

[FPVSteve]

I do love the optimism :)

[English Turbines]

  It looks amazing.......but isnt it like flying an egg without the yolk in it..?

They all look so very fragile to me.....?...

                                                                                                   :vulture:

[Drone 5]

It feels like an empty egg shell. Don't think it will survive long.    :laugh: :laugh:
Just wanted a go at printing it.

[FPVSteve]

Potentially really silly question here but.... is there any way you could fill it with expanding foam to add strength with very little weight gain? Maybe boring a hole into each part and just spraying the nozzle in? It might make a huge difference if there's internal support to the plastic shell?

[FPVSteve]

Have you seen the FliteTest 3d printed aircraft - they were surprisingly well behaved.

[Drone 5]

Hi Steve

Thanks for your comments.

I have thought about expanding foam in part of the rear fuz, the rest of the inside is needed for sliding the battery in/out. As for the wings, they have a lattice structure inside and not practical for foam.This structure is quite strong. It seems that the weak spots are where the sections are glued together on both the wing and fuz.

Yes, the fliteTest videos are great. The larger models seem to be 2 shells thick where as my small one is printed with one shell thickness. I did try 2 shells on a section of mine which made it much stronger but was heavy.

Being made of pla plastic, I don't think it will stand a lot of minor crashes. I just wanted a winter project to do with my 3d printer and thought this would fit the bill.

[Loopdreams]

I've built and flown the P38 and got the stearman pretty well complete.  These models are plenty strong enough for flight loads and landings but if your only previous experience is with foamies then you'll need to adjust your expectations.  These models won't stand up to landings that are just half-controlled crashes.  I did do some testing on a scrap fuselage that I ended up with after I messed up putting one together and found that the glue joins were actually stronger than the plastic surrounding them.

[Drone 5]

Hi All   Update

Well she had her maiden flight the other day and I was well impressed. Only had to put a bit of down trim in.

Sorry for no video, so as they say, " no video - no.........."

Will get a video as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer.