| "After
losing the first B-29 to wing failure at Joe
Nall in 2001, Dan Stevens decided we needed
to build a new B-29 and said that he was up
for the task. Dan had recently retired and
had the time to devote to the project. Plus
he had an X-1 and no ride! He began
construction in October of 2001 and we made
the test flight in March of 2002. We got a
set of plans from Bob Campbell and Dan had
them enlarged 25%. Dan mostly used this as a
3D outline and then decided on his method of
construction. The plane is all foam.....
fuse, wings, and empennage. The cores were
cut by Wade Daughtry, who also made the
fiberglass cowls from a mold made by Dan.
Also thanks to Bubba Spivey at Lanier for
the windows and nose glass, also pulled from
a mold made by Dan. Dan is the best builder
I've had the experience of knowing. Dan can
look at a task and immediately know what to
do and he then doesn't waste any time
getting it done. He was helped on the
project by Charlie Evans and Mike Savery,
members of the Albany Ga. Airmasters Club.
The new B-29
is 25% larger than the old one. The old 29
had a 16' span. The new one has a 20' span.
It has 4 ZDZ 80RV engines turning Zinger
4-blade 24x8 props. The props were made by
David Johnson by putting two Zinger 26x8
props together. That was a little more prop
than the ZDZ 80 could handle so I cut an
inch off each tip and that got the RPM up to
around 5300 rpm. Could probably take a
little more off but it has performed so well
that I quit there. The tips were rounded and
then painted and really look nice on the
plane.
The
plane started life with 4 receivers, 17
servos, and 9 batteries. The outer wing
panels with the outboard engines attach to
the center section with a couple of wing
tubes. To eliminate having to connect any
wiring each time we assemble the plane, we
use a receiver in each wing complete with
it's own battery and switch. Each engine has
a throttle servo and an ignition switch
servo. There is also a second switch in the
circuit for manual shutoff. Each outer wing
panel contains a Futaba 5301 servo operating
the aileron. This 292 in.oz. servo is also
used for each elevator half as well as the
rudder. We have a servo up front steering
the nose gear as well as a servo operating
the retract switch for the electric jack
screw retracts.
We originally
used the retracts from the old 29. Soon
after we started flying the new 29, it
didn't take but one flight landing on
a paved strip to convince us we needed
brakes, if we wanted to stop the plane! We
put a set of Glennis brakes on and they
worked ok but weren't entirely
satisfactory. So this added another servo
to control the air valve that supplied air
to the brakes. Also another problem cropped
up...the brake valve is mixed to the
elevator channel and is operated by applying
down elevator. Well, I was using so much
down elevator during my flight routine
that I was depleting my air supply. So I
added a servo operated valve mixed in with
the retract channel so that when I retract
the gear, the valve cuts the air supply off
to the brakes. A couple of years ago David
Johnson built an new set of retracts for the
mains. These are similar to the original but
with many improvements. He also made the
wheels and brakes. The brakes are a drum
arrangement using air to expand a couple
of o-rings against the drum. They have
worked great and have not given any trouble.
The whole assembly is a work of art! I can't
thank David enough!
The fuselage
contains two receivers, one working the left
side and the other the right side of the
plane. Each has it's own battery and switch.
The retracts are operated by an 18 cell
700mah NiCad. I started out with 1400mah
NiCad's for the engines and receivers. After
a year or so I changed to 2700mah Nimh
throughout. Last year I went back and
changed to one 2500mah Nimh for each engine
and two 2500mah Nimh per receiver with two
switches connecting to the receiver with a
Smart Fly BatShare.
I use a JR
10X and the receivers are JR 945 PCM Dual
Conversion units. All channels are in
use......Throttle controls the #1 engine
with channels 7,8,and 9 mixed to the
throttle channel to control the #2, #3,and
#4 engines. This lets me adjust the idle of
each engine and also lets me match them up
at half throttle or any other point I feel
they need adjusting. Then we have aileron,
elevator, and rudder. The rudder channel is
connected to the nose wheel servo so I can
use the rudder trim for centering the nose
wheel. Channel 6 is mixed the the rudder
channel and controls the rudder. If the
rudder needs trim, I would use channel 6
subtrim. Channel 5 controls the retracts and
channel 10 operates the ignition cutoff
servos.
We did the first test
flight in April 2002 at
Hodges Hobbies. No taxi
tests. Just pushed the
throttle up and we were
off. The new plane is
far superior to the old
one. It has much more
power and lower wing
loading and is very nice
flying bird. The old
plane had Quadra 42s and
weighed about the same
as the 98lb. new plane
with more wing area and
ZDZ 80s.
Last year we added
smoke and it has been a
great addition to the
act. I originally put
smoke on the #4 engine
just planning on using
it during the spin. It
looked so good, I then
added it to the #1
engine and added more
tank capacity so I could
use it during most of
the flight maneuvers. I
have about 13oz. of
smoke fluid per side.
The smoke system uses
two TME SmartSmoker
units with each drawing
power from a 730mah Nimh
battery. Each engine has
a 32 oz. B&B
tank supplying the gas.
We also have a parachute
drop unit that allows a
couple of crew members
to bail out when things
start getting scary. Dan
controls the smoke units
and the parachute drop
with his transmitter,
remember..... I have no
more channels.
So now where are we?....
we now have 16
batteries, 20
servos, and 7 receivers
counting the batteries
and receivers operating
the smoke units and
parachute drop.
The X-1 was enlarged in
size to match the new
1/7 scale
B-29. We continued to
use the same Aerotech
G-64 rocket motor that
we had used to power the
original X-1.
Performance suffered
some with the same motor
in the larger plane so
Dan reduced the size to
somewhere between the
two models and we now
have excellent
performance and the
X-1 looks great size
wise. We carry a backup
X-1 with us should we
have a problem, like
maybe after letting
Buddy fly it!"
|
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Warbirds
over Georgia
