The

MORRIS MUSTANG

Gez, a friend in Britain sent me a link to
a webpage with downloadable plans, and there´s
where I found the Morris Mustang plan.
Another good friend plotted
the plan for me...  

    This plan caused me to get an uncontrollable desire to start building. So I did.

I started with cutting the wing ribs and 1/4 sq. spar stock for the wing main spars and tail feather construction. I haven´t built from scratch for a long time, but luckily there are only twelve ribs. This was my first time cutting lightening holes in wing ribs, and it sure makes them look light, but in this case I´m a little doubtful about the weight saving, as I crushed two of the ribs, one of them twice during wing construction, and ended up gluing the pieces back together, so the glue probably weighs the same as the holes save weight...

1. Plan laid out on the building board.
2. The wing is built upside down over the plan. I started by laying out the top sheeting and capstrips. The length of the top main spar is about 102 cms, so I had to splice it. The leading edge sheeting received the same treatment in the other end of the wing (see center of pic above).
 

As the wing is built like this, flat on the building board, all dihedral will be on the underside of the wing.
3. Wing ribs and bottom wing spar are added along with the dihedral brace.
4. The plan calls for a carbon fiber reinforcement on the wing underside, but I used 0,6 mm plywood instead. The bottom leading edge sheeting is added to the wing.
 

Leading edge, capstrips and trailing edge sheeting was added, as were the wing tips and leading edge capping.

Building from a plan rather than from a kit has its advantages, as I could cut my own special wood sizes. In this case I could make the aileron leading edges in one piece, rather than built up from six or seven pieces as the plans call for.

All the control surfaces was built, as was the stabilizer. The stab and elevators look small in relation to the wing especially considering the short moment arm, but as this is a kit plan I figure it´s all right... The fuselage "skeleton" was built over the plan. I´m not sure about how much weight is saved with a profile fuselage, I guess most of the benefit comes from building a "lookalike" model in as much time as it normally takes to build an
average Ugli Stick.

Testmounted Mustang held by son Lukas. The first trial fit of all major parts is always fun, and makes one feel that some progress has been made.