Velie Monocoupe

The motor I am using for the Velie Monocoupe is a DYS D2830 brushless motor that will drive an 8x6 propeller and powered by a 3S Lipo. The real Monocoupe is powered by a 5-cylinder radial engine and many models use some type of dummy engine made of balsa or other material. I decided to try a 3D printed engine model combined with a simple cowl. The 3D design is posted and available for download on GrabCAD: https://grabcad.com/library/velie-monocoupe-rc-model-5-cylinder-engine-dummy-1   The hot end on the printer was probably set a few degrees too high for this new spool of PLA and I had some stringing and distortion on the thin edges. After some light sanding and a coat of black spray paint it looks ok, although I might end up reprinting it.

I decided to resigned the structure of wing panel around the rib's airfoil. Instead of the two bottom spars I opted for a conventional top and bottom spar with a sub-spar in front to share the covering and add some strength: using my CAD program I created a new 3D object of the rib with 1/8"x1/4" main spars (top and bottom) at the CG location, 1/8" square sub-spar, 3/16" square leading edge, and a 1/8"x1/2" trailing edge. The CAD files can be downloaded from GrabCAD here . I printed the template pair on my 3D printer using PLA and used them as a sanding template for creating two stacks of ribs for the two wing panels: Preparing the stack with 1/16" light balsa: The stack after sanding and cutting slots for spars: Finished rib set for one wing: