Recreating the Spirit of St.Louis
Spirit of St. Louis officially known as “Ryan NYP” was a custom-built, single-engine, single-seat high-wing monoplane. The Ryan Airlines designed this plane and it was flown by a American stunt pilot and military officer Charles Lindberg. On May 20-21, 1927, Charles made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris (NYP) on this plane and won the Orteig prize. This aircraft was named as "Spirit of St. Louis" in honor of Lindbergh's supporters from the St. Louis Raquette Club in his hometown.
This project is focused on designing a model of one of the most advanced and aerodynamically streamlined designs of the early twenties era. The color of the airplane was modified to enhance the distinction between the control surface and the fuselage, wing, and stabilizers and to provide an impressive appearance. This article presents an all-inclusive guide to constructing a miniature model of the Spirit of St. Louis with easily available resources at an optimal cost.
Developing the design:
Throughout the process of building this model aircraft, care was taken to ensure that the original shape of Spirit of St. Louis was precisely replicated. Every detail was carefully considered and meticulously crafted to ensure that the result was an accurate representation of this iconic aircraft.
Important steps followed during the design phase with respect to key dimension calculation are as below:
Wing dimension: Wingspan is assumed to be 75 cm
Wing chord = 20% of the wing span - Wing chord = 15 cm
Aileron chord = 25% of the wing chord - Aileron chord = 18.75 cm
Fuselage length= 75% of the wing - 56 cm (approximately)
Horizontal stabilizer dimensions:
Horizontal Tail span = 30% of wing span – 22.5 cm
Horizontal Tail chord = 50% of the horizontal tail span – 11 cm (approximately)
Elevator span = Horizontal tail span
Elevator chord = 30% of the horizontal tail chord – 4cm (approximately)
Vertical stabilizer dimensions:
Vertical tail span = 50% of Horizontal tail span – 11 cm(approximately)
Vertical tail chord = Horizontal tail chord
Rudder Chord = Elevator chord
Construction:
The pictures below show each stage of the designing of the aircraft including the measurements phase, taping, ironing, and carving.
High wing profile:
The wing measurements were marked on the foam board and carved out. The flutes were carefully cut. Three strips of foamboard pieces were cut and aligned in triangular pyramid form to create the flat bottom aerofoil structure. The top and bottom surfaces of the wing were glued together.Taping and ironing was carried out.
Flat bottom airfoil:
Fuselage:
Fuselage and Flutes were measured, marked and cut out of the foamboard. Glue was applied on the flutes and the side pieces were attached to the bottom surfaces of the fuselage. Taping and ironing was carried out. Taping and ironing was carried out.
Stabilizer designing:
Horizontal and vertical stabilizers , flutes were marked and cut out of the foamboard. Each of the stabilizers were subjected to taping and ironing. Vertical stabilizer was glued perpendicular to the horizontal stabilizer.
Conclusion:
One of the best-designed aircrafts in the history of aviation has been recreated to the best possible extent and the result has been very satisfactory and successful. Some challenges were enduring the building stages but they were overcome to produce a visually stunning aesthetic model. Building this aircraft from scratch has provided me the confidence to take on new projects on radio-controlled planes and deliver high-quality results.
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