Heller F-86F question

[Andre B]

On 2/25/2019 at 4:39 AM, Tony Edmundson said:

Is there an easy way to correct the Heller wings?

 

Cheers / André

[Tony Edmundson]

1 hour ago, Andre B said:

Is there an easy way to correct the Heller wings?

 

Cheers / André

depends on what you intend as the outcome, but I would say 'nope'

[viscount806x]

On 2/24/2019 at 10:57 PM, Julien said:

Interesting, and confusing in one. Maybe the buttock term is one that fell from use.

 

Also interesting the full scale plans issue. While we never got to that stage with ships I have seen full scale lofts in chalk on the floor for certain areas in particular for the subs. There are some areas with strange curves which surprisingly made more sense drawn out than they did on CAD if that makes sense?

Julien

I remember doing my B737 engineering course back in 1980 at BA and came across these terminologies for the first time, so I think it is standard U.S. practice. Station '0' was indeed forward of the nose on that a/c too and the reason for it was given as allowing for nose extension while keeping other bits further back such as the doors or windows at their usual station number, as somebody else said earlier. A horizontal line approx midway down the fuselage, nose to tail was termed 'BBL' or 'Body Buttock Line'. Used to Viscounts and Tridents etc. we all thought it quite amusing and not a little confusing. Perhaps it was from a nautical origin.

[72modeler]

Andre B,

 

I think the Heller F-86F wings can be modified to be pretty accurate, if those are the ones you have to use. I pulled my Heller kit and one of my Airfix F-86D kts, as it is generally regarded as having an accurate narrow-chord standard span slatted wing. Laying the upper wing half of the Heller kit over the upper wing half of the Airfix kit, here is what I observed and measured. Sorry for the lack of metric measurements, but my trusty scale rule isn't in mm, although if you need the metric measurements, I can convert.

 

I lined each wing half so that the wing roots were aligned  to each other as well as the leading edges. If you do that. the leading edges align perfectly and the excessive sweep is at the trailing edge. The trailing edges align at the wing tips, but the trailing edge of the Heller wing is 3 inches less in chord at the root than the Airfix wing, due to the excessive sweep angle. The Heller wing is 6 inches short in span compared to the Airfix kit, which does have the correct span listed for the standard wing, NOT the F-40. I wish I knew how to post photos, as this would be much easier to view, but if you can lay your hands on the Airfix kit or some accurate drawings, and compare it to your Heller kit, I think my measurements and thoughts will make sense. (At least that's what I hope!)

 

Here's the weird part- the flap and aileron spans on the Heller wing are the same as the Airfix wing, so if you cut the old flaps and ailerons off of the Heller kit and made new ones of the correct chord,  the sweep angle of the trailing edge would then be correct; you would need to add 6 inches to the tip of the Heller kit to correct the   span. You would also want to correct the slats to have the correct span and that each segment was the correct length, but that's pretty easy.

 

If you want to go this route, it's not really that difficult, but it is tedious. It's a shame, as so many of us have said so many times, that no kit maker has deigned to release a narrow-chord, slatted standard span F-86E/F wing. They wouldn't be able to mold them fast enough to meet the demand. I hope this helps you, and that my fellow Sabre savants can confirm that this modification would work. Good luck! (Of course, the Laws of Modeling being what they are, as soon as you make the modifications, somebody will release a state of the art kit!)

Mike

 

Heller wing is 6 inches short in span and 3 inches short in chord at the wing root, compared to the Airfix/MPC F-86D

Span of the wing slat is 16 feet, 3 inches on the Heller kit; slat span is 16 feet on the Airfix kit

Span of the four slat segments, going from the root to the tip:

Heller:  28 "  4' 8"  4' 6"  4' 6"  

Airfix:   30"   4' 9"  4' 6"  4' 3"

 

OK, I'm exhausted- time to open a cold one and recharge the modeling juices!