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STOVL Canberra


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I know --- I haven't been doing very much model building lately, I've got some other things that have cropped up which have to be done first, reno's to the house before winter really sets in for one (upgrading the R factor of the insulation in the walls to R20 [what was there was pre 60's], re-modeling my office in one of the rooms)

I've repaired the broken wing though, and re-enforced it a bit too by adding another spar which was a bit tricky.

StovlCanberra078.jpg

And I had started on the second nacelle but this is about as far as I got with it.

StovlCanberra079.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know the GB is over and I'm sorry I wasn't able to finish the project in time, but I'm still going to finish it. Progress though is running at the speed of the proverbial glacier.

The first nacelle is all glued together now and I've sorted out how the revised front nozzle fairings will be like, and I've decided not to show the main wheel bay open so I've filled the hole back in. This new wheel bay is much bigger than the original and extends into the airbrake area so that has been filled in too. I'll use the Harrier airbrake doors though only they will be in the sides of the Canberra fuselage, B-57 style. All the nozzles can be rotated but individually as I couldn't get the mechanism in the GR.3 kit to work here, the nozzles are quite different where they fit to the kit's fuselage.

Here's a few pics of the nozzle fairings:

StovlCanberra089.jpg

StovlCanberra091.jpg

StovlCanberra092.jpg

StovlCanberra093.jpg

This nacelle is almost ready to be glued to the wing, a bit of PSR left to do in a couple of places then it's on to the other nacelle in ernest

Edited by kitnut617
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You say that, but check this out. Similar concept athough it had ground eroding lift jets in the wing tips.

Great model though eh?

ahhh, id forgotten all about that!! when i was a kid, practically every aircraft book i had, or read had pictures of that Dornier in them!!

and yeah, its a cracking build!!!

steve

[edited to make sense!]

Edited by kspriss
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Hi Robert

only just chanced upon this thread :popcorn:

now you have butchered them there Harriers you HAVE to finish the project else there will be plenty big trouble :fight:

Edit: so that's why you wanted Harrier undercarts ;)

:D

I will finish it, ( before I start another project :whistle: ) RW just got in the way, is all!!!

Edited by kitnut617
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ahhh, id forgotten all about that!! when i was a kid, practically every aircraft book i had, or read had pictures of that Dornier in them!!

and yeah, its a cracking build!!!

steve

[edited to make sense!]

See the first post in the thread for other influences

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Using the top of the Harrier fuselage I've now got it to fit in the 'hole' I created when I cut the Canberra nacelles out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Harrier top profile follows the Canberra wing chord fairly well and the part will produce a slight bulge in the top surface from front to trailing edge. I'm quite please how this turned out as I won't have to use too much putty.

StovlCanberra094.jpg

StovlCanberra095.jpg

StovlCanberra096.jpg

Edited by kitnut617
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Hi Robert

looks like that was a lucky break with the fit- i mean brilliantly planned of course :whistle:

just chanced on this photo you probably have already seen

I'd not seen that particular photo before -- nice find!

I've manage to approach the second nacelle build a little differently, this time I glued the two halves together first and re-enforced the joints with some styrene strip before I cut the top off. This allowed the top to be cut off in one piece instead of my previous attempt with the first nacelle where it was cut out in two parts from the two seperate fuselage halves. I've also shaped the new nacelle to fit the wing by transfering measurements from the first nacelle.

StovlCanberra098.jpg

StovlCanberra099.jpg

StovlCanberra102.jpg

Here's the difference between the two top parts. You can see how much I have to trim off to get it to fit in the slot.

StovlCanberra100.jpg

And this is a trial fit-up with the Canberra fuselage included.

StovlCanberra101.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kitnut617..

I have been reading this thread for a while and I have to say that I am very IMPRESSED by not only your

patience with this AWESOME project; but by your imaginative, innovative concept.

The drawing are very neat and precise and well I am in awe of your talent and looking forward to this SUPERB

model...

WOW !!! :speak_cool:

Keep at it Sir..

HOUSTON.... :clap2::pilot:

Edited by Houston
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Thanks Houston, I appreciate your kind comments.

I can report that the second nacelle is coming along nicely, I'm trying to make it as near a mirror image as I can. The project is now looking more like an aircraft now.

StovlCanberra103.jpg

StovlCanberra104.jpg

StovlCanberra105.jpg

StovlCanberra106.jpg

StovlCanberra107.jpg

StovlCanberra108.jpg

Edited by kitnut617
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When I first saw this I thought it'd look ridiculous... now it looks like an aircraft that might well fly. :hmmm: You'll need to protect the wing surface from heat damage from those nozzles in forward flight though ;)

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Thanks everyone ----

Mike, do you know what is used on a Harrier to protect the wings ? Did they used titanium or something like that because the nozzles here are in about the same position from the wing undersides. The fuselage is also further away from the nacelles than the big pylon on the Harrier is from the nozzles. Does anyone know if the Harrier used exotic material for heat protection in other areas other than the blast deflector just behind the hot nozzles ?

EDIT: Mind you, looking at all my Harrier models and this project's parts, it would seem that the front cold nozzles are slightly higher than the rear hot ones. It would appear that the blast from the cold nozzles might actually be doing the cooling to the wing undersides

IMHO, I don't think it would have a problem flying, technically I've not changed anything other than the nacelles and one of the latest Harrier engines has way more power than the two engines on the PR.9. If anything it's grossly over-powered ( for forward flight LOL). From what I've read the Gross Take-Off weight for a Canberra is about 55,000 lbs, two Pegasus' could almost lift the gross weight vertically.

One of the things I was considering about was how would an engine change be accomplished (if it was real that is, I like to have an answer should someone make a comment), on a Harrier the wing comes off, then there's access to the engine. On this project that wouldn't be possible but the answer was quite simple, the whole nacelle front would be detachable from just in front of the main u/c and from just under the wing. A tranport trailer could be positioned under the forward section ( like a bomb trailer) and attached to lift points, a number of bolts undone (I'm thinking six) and the whole thing moved out of the way. Seeing some photos of how engines are removed from airliners clued me in on how to do it. Another thing about this idea is that more uprated and powerful engines could be more easily installed much quicker, all that would need to be done is to make sure the bolts holes match and the paneling is suitable modified.

Edited by kitnut617
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IIRC the Harriers wings have no heat protection on them as the airflow in forward flight took care of that, only the rear hot nozzles had heat shields on the fuselage for protection.

Regards,

JB.

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You're spot on JB; the aft (hot) nozzles have titanium heat deflectors and some of the panels towards the tail are also titanium. The fan nozzles are relatively cold (a little under 100 dec C off the top of my head) and don't need any particular heat protection. Indeed the early P.1127 nozzles were made from GRP and subsequently changed to titanium for reliability reasons rather than heat-resistance.

This model is really beginning to take shape now. Keep up the great work!!

Kirk

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Thanks again guys, one thing I don't know about is the aerodynamic relation between the wing and the horizontal tailplane. In my mind because I've moved the wing up, the tailplane should go up to keep the aerodynamics the same. Whether that is true I couldn't say, I'm going to run that by an aero engineer who's on another forum.

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One of the things I keep having a go at is polishing the Vulcan canopy. This is a tedious job so I do a bit, leave it, then do a bit more some other day but it seems to be coming around. Here's a pic of how it was and how it is now.

StovlCanberra109.jpg

The only problem now is the massive mould ejection sink holes on the inside, this will take about a year to polish out I think, so I'll have to have a re-think on how the canopy will eventually look like. It's leaning towards having a center frame with maybe some overhead switches or something in it

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  • 3 weeks later...

More progress made over the last couple of weeks. The first nacelle is now glued on and had the initial PSR process, the second nacelle is almost finished, just some fine adjustments to the new nozzle fairings and the u/c doors to sort out and make sure the nozzles fit in properly. But I've got the nacelle top over the wing glued in now.

StovlCanberra112.jpg

StovlCanberra113.jpg

I've been doing some pre-planning on how the load-out will be, I'll be using the large Harrier tanks and I've extended the large Harrier pylon using part of a F-15 pylon which just happens to match up quite well. I'll be using most of the other GR.7 pylons too and I've trial fitted one to see how it will look.

StovlCanberra110.jpg

StovlCanberra111.jpg

I've built a few Canberras in the past and always had to place a substantial amount of nose weight to get the models to sit on it's wheels without other supports, not so on this model, this one is nose heavy already. Although the chunks of resin I've used do add some weight it's not nearly the weight that I've had to use in the past so I suspect that by moving the main wheel centers back about 3-4 mm's actually helps more.

EDIT:, spoke too soon, just trial fitted the tailplanes, it tail sits -- just. But I haven't raised the tailplanes or extended the fin yet so I'll leave the radome off for a while

Edited by kitnut617
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