TNF-F14 DTFB Pusher with swinging wings

I have found a new passion now that I found flitetest. I love to build models and have an obsession with airplanes. I have always had an interest in rc but never could see spending the money and crashing. Now with DTFB a good crash is a good lesson on aerodynamics. I love to challenge myself so I decided to make an f-14 with retractable wings. It is a pusher version as my Cheap 60 mm EDF was just too weak to handle the plane . The following article is about the build of my TNF (Toss and Fly) f-14 , with free pdf and cad drawings if any one is interested in trying . 

All the parts were ordered from www.GEARBEST.com. I am not affiliated with gearbest it's just another option that I found out there . Links for the parts will be at the end of the article. Their prices are comparable and shipping was fast.

The main challenge was  the wing and how to get them to move. After several weeks of planning and several prototypes , I think i managed to get a decent way of moving them. At first I used a slow moving servo (Turnigy TSS-9S) but it didn't have enough torque to move the wings during flight . I installed a regular 9 gram servo and it works fibe just not scale looking during movement. Flight characteristics did not change very  much if at all  

The video below shows the slow servo and the movement 

WING BUILD

So lets start with how I did the wing movement.

First off here are the parts that I used.

3/16 rivet , 1/8 hobby plywood ,3/16 hobby plywood ,4-40 x 1.5 screws with nuts and flat washers  small eye bolt and pushrod material plus a  .190 wood dowel

I took apart the rivet and opened up the sleeve just enough to allow the screw to fit in and spin .

  this is the swivel point

BELOW ARE THE PARTS USED FOR THE MAIN FUSE SWIVEL POINT

Here is the fuse with the wood   ready for glueing . Note that I removed the paper and foam to allow the ply to sit almost flush

The wing is assembled with the 1/8 ply . The ply is glued directly to the foamboard on both sides .This will allow the wood to rub and not the foam when the wing swings.I also installed a small dowel for the servo connection point.  (see below)

Above is the wing ready for glueing the servo connecting point

I used some push rod material and a small eye bolt  just large enough to allow for the dowel to go through.

I soldered the eye bolt to the rod

The most dificult part was finding away to allow a servo to move the wings. I came up with this design after serveral different attempts. I glued a popsicle stick to a round servo arm and drilled several holes into the popsicle stick  to allow for some adjustments

Here's a closer look at the wing mechanics

   ELEVON                            

The elevon assembly was another smaller challange . I used a dowl rod with a straw I borrowed from Wendy's and a popsicle stick . I removed some foam using the glue gun tip to recess the rod.

I also made a slit where the posicle stick goes for clearance and this also prevents the rod from moving in and out causing the elevon to jam (see end of maiden flight to see result of a jammed elevon)

Once these two items were solved everything else was pretty basic using Flitetest methods

This is the fuse ready for assembly less the poster board . It is best to assemble the wing and the elevon system to the fuse before glueing on the sides.

Once the wings and elevons are installed it is now time to put on the sides and add the servos for the elevons . The poster board can then be put on the sides once all your wiring is fed through.

The fuse top and canopy are next to be assembled

Electronics installed.Almost ready for maiden. I usually put the esc underneath at the back to get maximum cooling and run a long extention for the battery which I place at the front.  A 2200 mah battery gave me the best cg when placed at the front  

 LETS GO FLYING

Wings in closed position

 Wings in opened position

 Here are some links for the parts I used

 Please note that I am not a great Cad person ,so my plans are not quite perfect. There may be some minor adjustments you will need to do for a perfect fit , but over all they should be pretty close.

Below is the video of the maiden flight , along with pilot error then a nice roll  and crash, when elevon got jammed , hopefully when time allows I can get a better video

wing fuse tiled 

fuse sides tiled 

fuse top tiled 

Stabilzers and elevons tiled

Supplies 

Or Full plan in .dwg

full plans .dwg format