A welded tube fuselage could be part of the kit - provide the Oratex to cover it and you have the fuselage taken care of. No need to make a composite one.
On Sunday, January 19th, 2025 at 9:15 AM, Mike S via groups.io <Standleys@...> wrote:
Hello everyone, I'm near civilization today so wanted to see whats going on it the TW world. I very much agree with the sentiment that runs through this thread. I'm scared to be " one of those guys" who talks about my great plans that never materialize BUT, I think the TW could/should be kitted. The reason I'm pursuing a composite version is so it can be. IMO, a welded steel fuselage is not conducive to that goal. Thinking out loud here so don't poke me too hard-
We'll look, really hard at #1168, figure out how to cover it with a superlite molded skin. Next since the wings were junk, I'll make a new wood set, cover and make absolutely perfect so we can get some molds from them. The beauty of Steve's wing is we can get P/S sides T/B skins from one set of molds. Tips and inboard ends would be separate molds flanged to either side of the main molds. Next we'd make molds for horizontal and vertical.? Put it all together, build and install the O290 that came with it and see what happens with the wood wing first. The fuselage skin molds would become the basis for future molded hulls. I would convert the steel control systems to a bolt together aluminum assembly group to speed up the build. If the Jabiru guys can build one of theirs in 600 hours, I don't know why you couldn't achieve that with a TW if we do everything with the builder in mind...back to the woods
Rgds, Mike
