After-Action Report: Airventure 2025

Hey ya’ll. Its actually the week after Oshkosh AirVenture 2025 and we are all back in the office and shop. Wow, what an Oshkosh! We had a super busy and productive week at the show. Getting there was a challenge, as was getting home. There’s lots to cover, so here goes:

This year, we chose to fly the P-36 in to the show, as the trailer was going to be hauling the P-40 fuselage display frame. The weather was actually cooperating and we started out with haste the morning of Saturday the 19th; the truck hauling the trailer, and the P-36 hauling me. This was all after everyone put in a very late Friday night to finish the P-40 frame and load up the trailer, which is typical for us trying to get everything right and make it to the show on time.

The P-36 was chugging right along and flew great, but I couldn’t say the same for my Dynon/iPad GPS combo. I was struggling with dim screens, dying batteries, loss of connection, and general nonsense almost the entire trip to Oshkosh. Somewhere south of Williamsport, I ran into some very low ceilings and poor visibility conditions. I had to deviate and found the Susquehanna River and an airport runway staring right at me. Just in time! The older fella who ran the FBO knew immediately that this was a P-36 and a Pearl Harbor paint scheme. How? Well, he’s an aviation artist and even had a mural in the pilot’s lounge of Rasmussens’ Pearl Harbor P-36 in a dogfight. What a coincidence - we made his day!

The sky broke and the sun popped out, revealing clearing skies to the West. I was off again before rain stopped me around dinner time over Akron, OH. I picked Wadsworth Airport and set down. My family was driving right along I-76 in the truck and met me a few hours later for a large hotel room. Last room in town - not cheap! But it was awesome to see my family right then. The next day, I was stuck with low ceilings with sucker holes every once in a while, so I stayed put and waited it out. A kind man at Wadsworth asked if I wanted a hangar for the day and night - yes! I was treated to his collection of vintage aircraft projects. He couldn’t have been nicer and I was welcomed to stay the next night at the FBO which I did. I’m happy to say I made many new friends among the CFIs there.

Then I was off again the next morning and winging my way to Oshkosh via the Navy Pier corridor. What a sight! I did the Fisk arrival which was way out of the way. Hardly anyone in sight along the entire route until over Fisk. I landed right before the Monday airshow shut down the airspace - whew! I taxied behind the Follow Me golf cart and they drove me all over the place - finally stopping and asking me where I wanted to go. To my booth by Vans Aircraft! Then taxied back over to the Homebuilts exhibit area as a crowd was gathering to see the P-36 and hear the lovely sound of the Verner radial engine. It was a grand entrance to the show! Then, Bam! The show was on! It started in a frenzy and didn’t let up all week until the last day on Sunday 27th. We had so many excited fans of the project. We had lots of interest, many people signing up for our Beta Builders program, and some even putting money down. Just what we had hoped for!

Our booth had our trailer with an awning, acting as shelter for our desk and table. We had the P-36 out in the corner of the booth space. It was easily seen from a distance being on a corner booth this year instead of burried half way down the aisle. The corner space cost us more money, but it was worth it I believe. This year we also had our P-40 fuselage on a display stand. It didn’t have the skin on it - so you can see the structure and bones of the bird. We added a profile view of the cowling with section slices on one side to show the contours of the machine. This must have struck a nerve as everyone was praising our decision to display it this way. You could see the lines of the machine were very accurate and gave a good sense of size and volume, but you can also see the primary structure inside, which showed off how we can make other WW2 fighter models with this same frame.

We had Vans Aircraft, Sonex, Panther, Stewart 51, Bede and many other companies engineers and sales folks stop by the booth and check out the planes. We showed them everything and let them sit in the P-36. Fun stuff! I finally met Randy Shlitter of Rans Aircraft and had a great time talking aircraft design. Awesome guy! Of course, we also had old friends and customers stop by regularly and we had a wonderful time with them. Excitement was the rule of the day, every day! I want to thank all of you who stopped by our booth; it was a pleasure for us to meet each and every one of you. You are why we are doing this!

I have to say it wasn’t all fun and games. Its a lot of hard work to get there on time, stand in the sun all day and answer a billion questions, then go to dinner and crash; just to do it all again the next day. My crew was tireless and pushed on throughout the week, and I have to give big props to the team as well.

We met the sponsors of our B-17 bomber project for a very nice dinner at our rental house. We spent a wonderful time together reviewing design documents and many family treasures involving the B-17 and their legacy. We are humbled to be a part of this endeavor and hope to bring you along on our journey.

I found out later in the week from a fellow Connecticut EAA member who stopped by that there was going to be a memorial service for Joe Gauthier. Joe was our CT resident DAR: the first DAR in the country! He was one among many distinguished EAAers who passed recently. I had to go to that on Sunday and it was a very appropriate service. Kudos to EAA and Jack Pelton for what he said and how it was arranged. A fantastic missing man tribute, made up of aircraft attending the airshow, topped it off. Sunday was brutally hot and humid, especially compared to the relatively mild rest of the week. I think I got over-heated and had to sit in front of our fan for a long time after getting back from the service.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it was over. I had to run over to the iFly booth and talk to them about a new GPS system. We had talked earlier in the week, and they said to visit as they were closing for a special opportunity - to purchase their floor model before its full release to the public. We spent hours tearing down the exhibit and packing the trailer up with the P-40 fuselage and our booth supplies. We pushed the P-36 to the grass, then I fired up and joined the conga line to get out after the airshow was over. I departed around 6pm in very hot air and managed to make it down to Chicago and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Navy Pier at sunset. With a wild orange sky and the lights of the city coming on, it was amazing! I landed in Porter County airport after dark. I was grateful to have an air conditioned vestibule to hang in and for my family to rescue me later in the night. Breakfast was at a local restaurant - I was recommended a place called ‘Viking Chili Bowl’. With a name like that, we had to try it!

We had hoped to visit the Champaign Lady, but during breakfast we discovered the museum was, unfortunately, closed on Mondays. Afterward, my family dropped me off and headed for home. I flew to Dayton area to visit a good friend, and Verner customer, Rick Shultz and his Grand Champion 2024 Hatz Classic. All was going quite well.

That is, until 19 miles from Andy Barnhart Memorial Airport, my engine power dropped significantly and started making a terrible racket. I used the Nearest Airport mode on my brand new iFly GPS X7 tablet (while everyone who ordered one had to wait another 3 weeks, I was the first customer to get one right there at the show!) 3.6 miles to Hartzell Airport in Piqua, OH. I made it 3.6 miles to Hartzell Airport in Piqua, OH on partial power. Rick’s good friend and A&P Mike Chappe met me there and we diagnosed an issue with the cylinder. We found a broken rocker arm hold down stud. It had just snapped at the base. We could get the old base out of the head and all the parts were sitting in the valve cover. The valve was not stuck, so we don’t know why this happened. This is the first time this has happened for a Verner engine; lucky me!

Well, I spent the whole week after Oshkosh near New Carlisle, OH with friends and had a great time, enjoying good food and good conversations. I did manage to visit the Champaign Lady after all! Once I fixed up the engine with a borrowed part from another customer, I flew back home on Sunday, August 3rd, with the brand new iFly GPS X7 working perfectly the entire time.

Meanwhile, the family had pushed through and arrived home at 3 AM on Tuesday, the 29th. Troopers! I met and made new friends all along this journey, and I am so thankful for how it all happened. It was a true adventure!

We are all back home again and getting back into the swing of it. Work is never over, so if you haven’t heard from us - please send us an email, call, or text. We are back on the bomber tail parts and finishing up the Beta tail kit planning. Expect more updates shortly.

Sam

Twas the Night Before Air Venture

'Twas the night before AirVenture, anticipation is high,

Pilots all stirring, beneath the warm summer sky.

Tickets were purchased, and campsites were booked alright,

Off to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the glorious aviation sight!

The aircraft were cleaned, gleaming so bright,

Across the nation, pilots spread their charts around, for their VFR flight.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But an EAA notice, filling all of us with cheer.

Pilots arrived like a great flock of seagulls, to OSH(kosh) they flew,

With NOTAMs and tips, for routes some old and some new.

"Now, FISK! Now, RIPON! Now, WARBIRD! and SEAPLANE!"

Controllers cried, guiding each aircraft around the blustery summer rain.

From Fond du Lac's pattern, to Wittman's main gates,

Thousands arrived, defying the fates.

Up to the heavens, they soared,

With wings full of promise, and dreams they adored.

Static displays lined the airfield, row after row,

From ultralights so tiny, to the biggest jets that could ever go.

A symphony of engines, from the P-51s at dawn till the twilight of night,

A chaotic and mesmerizing ballet, a truly breathtaking sight.

We will explore all the hangars, no detail to shirk,

From vendors with gadgets, engrossed in their work.

Then out on the flight line, a roar fills the air,

As aerobats tumble, not seeming to care.

And what to my inquisitive eyes did I see,

Near the homebuilt displays, for all to agree?

A new ScaleBird creation, so perfectly wrought,

Another miniature marvel, exquisitely thought.

Then Sam jumped into the Hawk, with a loud final whistle,

And away he flew, like the down from a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, as he vanished from sight—

"Happy AirVenture to all, and to all a good flight!"

As I write this, Scott, Nate, and Karen are already set up in Oshkosh, Sam is still waylaid in Ohio with our prototype P-36 Hawk due to midwestern summer weather, Shin is out in Guam for his other job, and I’m holding down the homefront here in Connecticut (toddler, work, running for local office, crumbling 115 year old house).  I can honestly say after spending well over two hours trying to write the ultimate Airventure parody of ‘Twas the Night’ (and admitting defeat, asking Grok and Gemini for help, summarily ignoring their inputs, trying again, incorporating some of their significantly better rhyme schemes, and editing it all together), I am having some serious fear of missing out on this annual gathering of all thing aviation.  That said, this AirVenture we at ScaleBirds have something new for all of you!

This year at AirVenture, we are unveiling our new and improved production Hawk Series. While the lines of the aircraft will remain relatively similar, we have consulted with some of the best and brightest (and most successful) in the industry to improve the internal structure, reduce weight, and simplify the build for our customers. This means out with the heavy tube and gusset aluminum frame, and in with a much lighter and stronger steel and aluminum hybrid structure. 

As I write this, the majority of the 1st an 2nd kits of our Hawk Series Beta kits are sitting in our booth in the Homebuilt section right now.  Major props to Scott for coming up with the wooden mockups to let us display these first two kits.  So while we will have the P-36 you have all seen and love (assuming the weather clears for Sam to leave Ohio tomorrow morning), we will also have our new sheet aluminum test article tail kit (and yes it already passed with flying colors) paired to our new welded steel forward fuselage.

I hope everyone made it to Oshkosh safe and sound.  Don’t forget to buy some merch from our PX (as most of our’s is sitting upstairs in my office here in CT). I apologize to all of my friends I won’t be able to see this year, but feel free to say high through the ‘Contact’ page, as I will be the one answering the mail :-)

Aaron tapping the fuselage into the wooden wingbox fixture while Scott and Nate remove a fixture from the tail; Scott, Sam, and Aaron discuss fit-up; Scott becomes the first person to ever sit over the new wingbox in the new cockpit structure (please ignore the fact that we are doing this on top of our very expensive new router table).

Loaded Up

On Memorial Day we had everything in place to do the load test on our aft fuselage and tail structure. Weather was also finally a go. Cameras were checked and their batteries charged. The airframe structure was attached to the blue testing fixture and setup in the parking area near our building. We used an old forklift for a counterweight. We had made stands for some rulers to take measurements of deflection. Then, after lunch, the testing crew was ready to go. We had two teenagers (extended family) help us with loading/unloading 46 lbs. gravel bags. Many hands make light work!

We preloaded the structure to 900 pounds of load - just over 4 g’s as a warm-up and to stretch what is going to stretch. This helps calibrate the deflection measurements. All new structures are going to settle and stretch under first loads. The result after unloading the structure is the baseline “Zero”. We noticed a couple areas of skin compression (slightest bulge between rivets) on the bottom box skin.

Test #1 was 1,196 pounds or 5 g’s at full gross weight at dive speed - Vne +10% (8 g’s at acro gross and maneuvering speed Va). We held that for 30 seconds or so. Measured deflection of 1.5” at the aft fuselage. In the long bay 2/3 the way back, we have two lightening holes in that panel and saw that there was a significant distortion of material between them. We had discussed adding panel stiffeners but were going for light structure. After removing the test weight, we decided to add the stiffeners to help with that distortion. There was no permanent deformation, so the structure was still good. The skins looked like they had taken a load, but still fine.

Test #2 was to 6 g’s at full gross weight, dive speed (9 g’s at acro weight and maneuvering). Deflections were about 1.75 inches at the fuselage and we held it for a good 30 seconds. The new stiffeners really helped with distortion of the panels and will be added to the kits. We then supported the fuselage and loaded more bags on for another test. Test #3 was 1,380 pounds and held as just as well. We didn’t unload but loaded more bags on for Test #4 at 1,518 pounds. Held that for almost a minute. Test #5 - At this point we unloaded three bags from one side of the horizontal stabilizer for asymmetric testing. This twisted the fuselage about 1/4 of an inch. Held for 30 seconds and then we unloaded the entire weight. That was equivalent to 6.5 g’s at full gross weight and dive speed (10.2 g’s at acro weight and maneuvering speed). Deflection was 2 inches and we had .125 inches of permanent deflection in the fuselage after all loads were removed. There is less than a .06 inches in the horizontal of permanent deflection. The horizontal stabilizer and mounting structure is rugged as hell and could take a lot more load. The side and bottom fuselage skins had definite wrinkles at a couple spots. The main longerons and bulkheads are perfect.

The deflections were more than estimated by the CAD software and that was a concern. Then, when reviewing the video, we found that the forklift was lifting and getting light on the main wheels. This caused a much larger measurement than it actually was. We should have turned the forklift around and had the counterweighted end facing our test rig instead of the forks. So we actually had about an inch of deformation over the length of the fuselage frame under max load, not the 2.0 inches indicated. We are happy with that result and it’s everything we designed the structure to do.

Adding the two panel stiffeners was already in the design space and we can also adjust the size of the lightening holes to help with distortions. Thickening the upper and lower box skins will help with compression bulges and only will add about 2 pounds. We had thinned those two skins to save the 2 pounds. We can save some weight elsewhere and make this structure more robust. The CAD engineering simulation software was good with deflection and loads, but not so good at buckling and distortion. We knew this going in and were worried about it buckling. It did not. The main longerons and mounting blocks held perfectly. The skins show some permanent distortions, but that is to be expected when loaded above yeild.

Results show the aft fuselage and tail structure to be capable of 5g at full gross (1350 pounds) up to yellow line cruise Vno (4g at Vne - but never a good idea to push it that hard!). This has a .5x safety factor before breaking structure. At acro weight (1235 pounds) she is a +6/-4 at Va maneuvering speed or low cruise.

So its capable of x g’s means the structure will deform under load, then return to original dimensions when released from the load. The max it can do this is called the design load. Above that load it may deform and not return all the way to original. This is called the yield region. Aluminum has a plastic yeild region that stretches and distorts. Then above the safety factor yield region - it may structurally fail and break. We call that point the ultimate load.

So for this plane, 6 g is the design load for aerobatic maneuvers. Above that is the safety factor yield region with an ultimate of at least 9 g’s before breaking. It can be bent, but will bring you home for repairs. Above 9g, all bets are off of bringing the plane home.

This is just what we want for the structural design. Mild, gentleman’s aerobatics (less than 4.5g) with a very good safety factor - up to 6 g’s for if you get in trouble in a maneuver. More than that and you might bend something.

If you are looking for serious acro - this is not the plane for that. This IS the plane for a lot of fun maneuvering and mock dogfights. Keep it Fun!

Tail Time

Greetings! We are hard at work getting ready for the load test. The aft fuselage is complete except for a few bolted-on parts we still need to machine. So done in a few days. Then assemble the load testing frame and bolt it all together. I will need to locate a good spot for the test in the parking area at our shop then get a load of gravel bags delivered. The test will be a ton of work - loading and unloading, measuring for permanent deflection, then loading more, etc… Work, but it should be exciting! Pics and video will be posted! I am planning to use the fork lift to make it a less back-breaking effort for the crew.

We built the aft fuselage “box” frame using Cherry stainless pull rivets CCP-42, 43, 46. It went together incredibly well. We are hoping that the end users will enjoy building this part of the airframe. We had to invent a hold down method and fixture on the cnc router table for drilling and profiling the main longeron angle extrusions. That fixture worked exceptionally well and is making kit-ready parts. It validated our decision to go with the Shop Sabre IS 408 instead of a lighter duty (more affordable) option. We are using it for milling and shaping thicker aluminum parts beyond the typical sheet. The sheet metal top, bottom and sides as well as the bulkhead parts were all cut out and pre-drilled. It just cleco’ed together. Not one hole was off location, though we did intentionally leave some holes out of a few mating parts to allow adjustment/fitment of the bulkheads. We did not need to make an alignment fixture for this. We just used a carpenters square for alignment for this first time. We should be able to dial in the exact location and make them matched holes within a few iterations. Very pleased with the results, but always wanting to improve.

Originally, we designed and built the P-36 prototype with an aluminum tubing frame with gussets, riveted and bolted together. This is very similar to the Airdrome Aeroplanes WW1 kits. It worked and was easy to build. However, it took a lot of gussets! This also made for some tricky riveting in places. This aluminum tubing frame was chosen because we thought it would go much faster than our original box design. It really didn’t go any faster and was not any lighter. So we have learned a few things along the way. We are back to the box design and are paying attention to designing it to be easy building and as light as possible. The forward fuselage frame will be welded 4130 steel tubing with welded gussets. The aft aluminum frame will bolt to the forward steel frame. The steel frame up forward is better for crash protection and structural load paths. The aero skins are just for shape and are not considered in the structural calcs - though they do add some strength.

This internal structure method is not weight optimized - taboo in aircraft design. We could save weight and some effort by going semi-monocoque for sure. However, we are on a mission to create more than a single airframe design. The internal structural method allows us to transform this P-40/36 into many models of fighters without the many iterations of structural design and engineering. It also allows us to create some truly unique aircraft models that we hope to bring forward fairly quickly. You will love it! First things first, we are hard at it to complete the P-40 design and kits to our customers.

We have a lot riding on this load test. So much so, we decided to forgo attending Sun ‘n Fun 2025. Too much of a distraction from the effort required right now. Our top priority is making progress on getting to production and delivering. Sun ‘n Fun has always been a fun show to attend - gets us out of the late winter weather up here in CT. But, it is a good week of effort before, the week during and another week after the show. That’s a minimum of a three week investment of time, effort and energy. Love SNF, but just can’t this year. I am hoping we will attend in 2026. With a P-40E and the P-36 on hand.

Actually Catching Up

Welcome back! Now its time for actually catching you up with our projects. We have been busy on three main fronts: the LiteFighter tail structure and load test, the B-17 tail structure and then the facilities upgrades needed to do all of it.

The P-40 tail is done, but we are working on the aft fuselage box frame that will be tested together with the horizontal and vertical stabilizers at the same time. We already have the fixture from previous testing of the prototype fuselage. The aft fuselage box will go together very rapidly and we will be testing shortly. Will post videos and pics. The FEA computations show we are fine, it will be interesting to see how close the software comes to reality. The B-17 tail spars, ribs and skins are being fabricated and then will go into our new universal vertical build fixture at our build studio. The facility upgrades included several wiring and lighting tasks, adding a ceiling fan to the shop, additional receptacle boxes and conduits along the shop walls for future work cells. We then designed, fabricated and installed our universal build fixture.

The P-40 tail components went together well. Had some minor fitment issues with our vertical. As a load test, we were fine with that and also didn’t spend a lot of time to make it beautiful and impressive - we are just going to bend it under loads. Fixing the dimensions was an easy fix in cad. Speaking of cad (Computer Aided Design), we modeled the LiteFighters in AutoDesk Inventor. Its an old version we have a valid license and know the program. The B-17 project is being designed in AutoDesk Fusion (Fusion 360). Its similar to Inventor and SolidWorks and we are transitioning very quickly. The FEA simulation environment is very easy to learn and powerful. We transferred a 3D model of the P-40 fuselage structure into Fusion to run the simulation. Passed with “flying colors”. We could even lighten it up some more, but we want to make sure we are not losing rigidity. One thing you notice when flying our plane is it feels Solid. I really like that. We will likely transition the entire LiteFighter design into Fusion at some point. Each CAD software package has its strengths and quirks. Fusion seems solid and is working for us. Other kit aircraft companies are using Fusion now. Its also very economical to purchase seats compared to SolidWorks and Inventor. A primary goal with the Beta airframes is to optimize (lighten) the structure to improve performance. So far so good!

We work the P-40 effort as we always have, nights and weekends. Our day job is the bomber project until we start bringing income in for the LiteFighter Beta and then standard kits. That should be quite soon, once the testing confirms our structure. We will then add to the crew as needed to get it all done. Realizing the pressure, we added Nathan Watrous to the full time crew for the bomber. He has been volunteering all-along when possible. Working out great, like us, he is wearing many hats! Design, fabrication, assembly and facility construction, etc…

The B-17 bomber project is just getting rolling with a lot of facility improvements required to handle such a large project. The design of primary structure is pretty well along - to where we can fabricate the entire back half of the aircraft. We are starting with the horizontal stabilizers and the vertical stabilizer right after. Then the elevators and the rudder. We will hang those up on our shop wall - that will get them out of the way and man, that will look impressive! Our preliminary weight and balance calculations and 3D modeling is showing we are a little heavy with the cg in the zone - not unexpected. We have been rounding up typically for all components for conservative guesses. We are optimizing structure as we go and will be working to reduce weight as much as possible. Aaron is crunching numbers - even on vacation!

The 60% B-17 airframe is pretty damn big! Wingspan is 62 feet, length is 38 ft. Fuselage is 50 inches in diameter with a dog house on top. The span of each horizontal stab is 11.6 ft. How to build such a large airplane? Our plan is to build it in short sections of 20 ft or less. We will ultimately need a large space to assemble all the pieces into the whole. That is down the road a bit. For now, we will use our build studio (my garage) and our new universal build fixture. We studied Steve Wolf’s P-47 wing build fixture and picked his brain. He is such a tremendous wealth of knowledge for fabrication! He built both wings at the same time and it saves time doing that. Our fixture is based on his, but made for adjustability to make the other parts of the plane. This fixture can adapt to different sized aero structures and allows two wings or horizontals to be built at the same time. Additionally, it can also hold different jobs at the same time or support a fuselage section build. Its made with Unistrut channels at top and bottom that allow the 8020 vertical t-slot columns to adjust horizontally to support structures properly. Then brackets reach out from the 8020 columns to grab the structures as needed. All of this can be adjusted vertically and horizontally. So we can build Bomber components now, and LiteFighter or other wings and parts later.

UPDATE: Good news: we have cut first parts and forming blocks on the B-17 build. They are big! The horizontal stab is as big as our LiteFighter main wing!

Bad news: Windows update killed our access to our network access storage (NAS) devices. Those older devices (Drobo) are no longer supported. We couldn’t just revert to the previous update because it would require remapping and that would risk loosing all access to the old devices. Soo, we had to buy a new NAS device with cloud backup. We had an old Windows pc running our old CNC router that can still see the Drobo units. So we could transfer the data by using an external solid state drive and haven’t lost anything. But it was dangerous! So, if you have important data, keep it on current devices. I’ve been unable to get to some of our data for over a week. This delayed me posting this blog update. We have old backups of the design data that we could access, but would loose some recent design effort on the LiteFighter and some non-design files we need. fortunately, the Fusion cad files are all stored in the cloud and were available.

Will post more pics and updates as we get going. Thanks for folllowing!

Catching Up

I was thinking about writing a new blog post today to catch you all up. I just happened to check my phone for aviation news and it showed Paul Dye’s article posted at Kitplanes and blew me away. He sure seemed to like our plane when he was here to test fly it, but I really didn’t know what he would write. Would he hate the control harmony or something? I appreciate the kind words about us and the aircraft. And NO, I did not pay him to write a word of it. Although I might owe him another “Slice of Heaven” from Mystic Pizza (Julia Roberts Movie) next time he is in our neck of the woods. We have always asked for constructive feedback - we want to make this aircraft the most fun flying experience any sport pilot would want. So we super appreciate him flying and writing about our design. Please check out the article: https://www.kitplanes.com/scalebirds-p-36-hawk/ The flight test report article is on the Kitplanes.com home page.

Since that is quite a bit of reading, I will update you all in a few days with pics of what we are working on and status.

Taking the Plunge!

Wow! December is half way done! November just flew by for us here at ScaleBirds. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Since the last blog in mid-October, a lot has transpired. Most of it good. Some of it was amazing!

After 16 years, I took the plunge and have stepped away from Electric Boat. Well, for the time being it’s a one-year leave-of-absence for the purposes of starting a company. This is a seldom-used feature of the union contract. The clause allows benefits to remain in effect as long as we continue paying our share at our normal rate which makes transitioning to a new venture much less of a burden. Now, I left at the end of October, and so provided we get these kits out the door I won’t have to return to The Boat next October, but it remains an option until then. To be honest I took a few days at the beginning of the month to wind-down: feels good! But not a lot of time spared to rest around here. The rest of this year is dedicated to the task of getting everything squared away.

Finding space around here suitable for what we need to do is tough. So we need to work hard to optimize the spaces we currently have. That means getting rid of a lot of leftovers and scrap from the P-36 build, old components, test articles, as well as generally reorganizing the home office and shop spaces, the hangar, and our machine shop. It comes down to being able to execute. We have a lot of space but it is spread out. I am sure we can make it work with some creativity. We will still be looking for a larger consolidated space in the area, but Southern CT is not overflowing with vacant industrial space. It might be easier to fully relocate in a year or two.

One big reason for the shuffle right now is that we are all-out on gearing-up for production, and that means making proper space for proper tools. After making runs of test parts for the tail kits, we have been struggling with mis-matched holes and inconsistent parts. This sort of thing is OK for some simple one-off parts, but to build an airplane kit, we need accurate and consistent work. These issues have mostly been traced back to our DIY CNC router. After working hard for years to build our prototype, our old machine simply reached the limits of what we could expect from it. After weeks of searching, we found a listing for a used ShopSabre IS 408 CNC router, from a company looking to upgrade their 4x8 machines to larger ones before the end of the year, and so I think everyone made out really good on this deal. The ShopSabre runs on ballscrews and linear guides, the same as used on industrial mills like the Haas, and has an automatic tool changer and vacuum table. This is the class of machine a kitplane company dreams of to make top quality kits, and it just arrived - in time for Christmas! We are busy with wiring and installation efforts including replacing the spoil-board and top surface so it can be trued to be very accurate.

Besides cutting metal, the other thing we must do for your kits is form the metal. There are big industrial presses that can do it, and you can gang up 2 or 3 smaller presses to do the job as well. But none of these options really has the ideal aspect ratio for bigger bulkhead or rib shapes, they tend to be rather narrow. However, we found an ad for a very unique hydraulic press, custom built for a drilling and blasting company in southern Massachusetts, with a huge 2ft x 4ft working area between 4 upright beams. This thing looked big in the pictures; in person it’s bigger. We showed up that day with cash and made a deal, because it’s the perfect size for aircraft ribs. But then had to figure out moving it to our shop. That was a bigger challenge than it seemed due to location in the garage and some sprinkler pipes, but some makeshift skates and an excavator got it done. As mentioned, this beast will be used for forming our ribs, bulkheads, fuel and oil tank parts, canopy frames, and numerous other things that need to be squeezed into shape.

The last major tool we need to figure out is a dedicated 8ft break of our own for bending spars. Up to now, we’ve had ready access to various 6ft and 8ft breaks which has been extremely handy. But they are not ours to modify. For serial production it will be important to set up the tools for our specific bend radii and add gauges and stops to ensure consistent results. These are out there, its just a matter of finding the right one for us.

And then in addition to these big items we’ve been taking stock of our selection of riveting tools, drills, saws, and other shop equipment making sure we have everything we need for clean and consistent results. Need new grinding wheels, fresh shop glasses, heck just more trash cans. Once you start spending all day in the shop for a week, a lot of things start to stand out.

Of course while organizing the shop is important, we haven’t stopped on other fronts. Scott has been making and remaking the sample parts for the P-40 tail feathers for load testing and fitment checks. While there have been some hiccups and mismatched holes, overall it is coming together. No huge surprises. We’ve done this all before. But this time we need to use the tools we plan to keep using and not just whatever we can get to work for one time. Case in point, I am in the middle of making the leading edge press tool for the horizontal skins, to make the process a lot more repeatable.

While fabricating the test parts, Scott and I have been trying to work towards wrapping up the retractable landing gear and all the cascading changes that requires. i.e.: fuel tanks are now different, most of the center section ribs are different, etc. We are still working it, but it is looking good! As part of the center section update I am also incorporating the aluminum fighter/bomber bucket seat that we always intended to incorporate. This seat sits lower and more square to the frame which allow us an additional 1-1/2 inches of head room for the tallest folks - I don’t have that problem. It will also look more authentic to the WW2 fighters. In fact, we may use the seat build as a practice assembly you can order by itself, and adapt it for a great chair in your hangar/shop or even your bar at home. The seat in our P-36 was a fiberglass unit we bought, used in Stardusters and the like. It works fine for the prototype, but not what we intend to use going forward.

So spending a lot more time at our shop at the Groton airport industrial park has some repercussions. I had a neighbor boat repair guy back a boat and trailer into my truck. Well, it happens, but a boat??? Well you don’t know how much you need your truck until you go without for a week and a half while its at the body shop. So the week I’m working siding and trim - arrrrgggghhh. Those hardware box store rental trucks are a really good deal! Conversly, while looking for space at Windham airport, I met a nice guy taking pics of the P-36. He was sending them to a friend. Later, we actually met his friend Robin Foote who is a local guy that flew warbirds with his dad in airshows up and down the East coast - Canada to Florida. They had several of the Tora Tora Tora birds, a P-51, a FM-2, T-6 and a few other aircraft. Robin also started the Quonset Air Museum in Rhode Island. His dad actually flew about 25 hours in P-36’s in the Aleutians in WW2 - but he was a Navy pilot. Figure that one out. They needed all hands in case the Japs invaded. So the Army allowed a Navy pilot to train in their planes. Robin stopped by and liked our P-36 replica so much, he wants one.

We are making steady progress. The plan is to push the tail group thru to test. If you are interested in a tail kit, please contact us. We are getting very close to kitting them up.

I hope each of you will have a wonderful Holiday Season. Make time for the Christmas parties, services and friends and family gatherings. Stay safe!

Crazy Good

Hello folks. We are alive and kicking! Sorry, been a long time out of comms. Our week at Oshkosh was tremendous and we accomplished all we were hoping for. We sold one Verner 9S and have several more lined up for when the projects are ready to order an engine. We ended up taking a deposit for a tail kit for our next LiteFighter - the F6F Hellcat. This is something we were planning to do early next year, but decided we get the ball rolling on the Hellcats. P-40 and P-36 beta kits are top priority for ScaleBirds. We are designing the airframe to be modular and have been laying out the F6F to work with the primary structure all-along. So we will be ready to go right after the Hawks. We did have a great week and met so many awesome people and customers. Including Ty Ferkin, Trent Palmers buddy. Loved our plane.

On several evenings, we met with the Mini Eighth Air Corp (mini8th.org) and the family that is sponsoring their half scale B-17. Wanting very accurate loft lines, we settled on 60% scale using four Verner 9S engines. We are going to write all about it shortly. Don’t worry, we will be pushing hard on the beta kits and we feel this will be a win-win. The bomber project is going to allow me to leave my day job and Scott and I will be working on aircraft full time. We already are working ScaleBirds on nights and weekends and Electric Boat is getting the best 10 hours of my day. We will be able to concentrate on the aircraft build and kitting much better. More focus. Also, from talking with other kit companies, we will need an additional funding stream during the first few years - until the first customer built planes fly. Then the orders roll in. The bomber project helps us to stay afloat.

There was some tragic news we heard during the show that we had to process and even comprehend. Adam Plummer, one of our early Beta builders was killed in a weather related aircraft accident with two other guys in a Cherokee. Tough stuff. His friend stopped by and told us. Talking with his widow over the phone was heart-breaking. He was so keen on starting the P-36. Then, we also heard that John Williams of Titan Aircraft was killed in a crash of his T-51 with a new propeller that over-sped and then disintegrated. Several of his customers stopped by our booth to discuss it and see what we were doing.

Hearing directly from them, it confirmed our design philosophy for the LiteFighters. Use common sport aircraft engines and propellers. Keep it to normal hp and safe speed range. Gentle stall characteristics. Safe and fun to fly vs high performance and high skills to fly. Our booth at AirVenture was right next to Stewart 51. That aircraft is amazing, but it is a thoroughbred racing machine. You need high skills and excellent proficiency with that hardware. The engine and propeller is a project for an air racing shop team. We are staying way away from that. Titan was incrementally pushed into higher and higher performance and power. The prop was just some of the issues with that direction. There is a market for high performance, but we think fun flying is when you don’t have to worry about being able to land the plane. We hope we are right and that there is a great market for fun replicas.

After AirVenture, we got back home and promptly got a good case of The Oshkosh Crud. My wife Karen and then her work mates came down with Covid-19. I had all the same symptoms, but tested negative twice. My situation with that is it took a month to be done with it. I felt good again every 4 or 5 days for a few days, then wham, back into it again. Kinda felt like Groundhog day every day or maybe like a circular firing squad. That was August - pretty much just sick and the reason I didn’t write anything after AirVenture. Although we did have a phone interview with Hal Bryan, editor of Sport Aviation magazine. Sport Aviation came around multiple times during AirVenture to take images and video of our plane and booth. Hal says we will be in the November issue of Sport Aviation. Yippee! The pinnacle of our industry!

Then, in September we finally got the plane back to flying status after having a sticking exhaust valve. I did manage to get some flying time on her. Then Paul Dye, editor-at-large of Kitplanes magazine called and we made plans for him to come to our place and fly the P-36 the last weekend of September. Awesome! Then the realization sank in that we had Kitplanes coming for an interview, flight report and air to air photo shoot of our plane, shop and hangar. Oh boy. We spent three weeks of September getting ready. We were straight out - again, I didn’t have time to write about any of it - cleaning and organizing both spaces and making sure everything was perfect. I think it was, cause Paul had high praise for our efforts and the plane. He was not sure which issue it will be in. Said it was most likely Jan or Feb issue. I have no idea what he will write, but he did say it was a fun airplane to fly and that it was a joy to fly it in formation.

His comments to us about the flying qualities were in agreement with what Steve Wolf said and my own experiences. Mainly that we need to add offset to the vertical or add rudder trim - right foot pressure pretty much the entire flight. The other comment was aileron force was very light and neutral in the middle. So adding some stick force to it would really make it a joy to fly and very much like an RV-3. Paul says the RV-3 has the best control harmony in sport aviation. Not sure if he will say this stuff or not in his article. But I want you to hear it from us first! We are addressing these things in our Beta kit version of the aircraft.

It was a great day. Paul arrived to some low scattered thin clouds and light winds. Sunny on top. We prepped the plane and I took it around the patch to see how the clouds were going to affect him or not. They were scattered and 400 to 500 ft and easy to miss. Paul took the plane up for about 40 minutes and made a full stop, taxied back and went around again for a final landing. Both landings were perfect. He gave us his initial impressions about ailerons and rudder. Said it was a fun airplane to fly. He took some images and we put her away in the hangar.

We then went to our shop at the Groton airport industrial park. He took some images there and we talked for a while about designing and building the P-36 and what we are working on with the kits. We then went to lunch at Mystic Pizza - were Julia Roberts worked in the movie of the same name. Paul has had a fascinating career at NASA and we learned all about it and how he got into that gig.

We headed back to the airport and got ready for the photo plane and crew to arrive. They promptly did and it was Mark Scott and his son, flying in Marks amazing Bearhawk and the EAA chapter’s RV-12A. They are from the EAA chapter 27 in Meridan, CT. They briefed and harnessed up the photographer after removing the rear seat door. Then both planes flew off into the late afternoon sun and clouds for about an hour. When they came back, the photographer was saying how photogenic the plane was and the break-away that Paul did was sick! Awesome in other words! I did get to see one image of the break-away and the P-36 was at a 90 degree bank and pulling. The US ARMY stencil and roundels were front and center. Cool! I can’t wait to see the other images she took.

Then we took a trip to Watervliet, Michigan with our trailer to pick up a donated Hawker Hurricane project. It will be the second aircraft in the future Mini Eighth Air Corp museum of replica aircraft, after our P-36 prototype of course. We stopped by the Air Zoo aviation museum and what a treat that was! We also stopped by our customers Rick and Kathy Shultz in New Carlisle, OH. They won a gold Lindy for their red Hatz Classic with one of our Verner 9Ss on it. Stunning airplane.

During all this time after AirVenture, we have been finalizing design and cutting out parts and form blocks for the vertical and horizontal. We went back to the drawing board for the rudder to lighten it. Several comments were made during Oshkosh about it being very heavy. We did manage to lighten it up, but have to make another one for testing. We can re-use most of the parts we fabricated for a second rudder, so it wont take too long to do. It will be slightly heavier than the normal simple, light aircraft rudder because of the replica shape and scale. The original P-40 rudder is a very complicated structure and we are making a similar, but simplified, version of it. I am planning to finish our test tail and test it in early November. Tail kits will be right away after that - in mid to late November. We also have room for an additional Beta builder, so if interested, please email or text me. swatrous@gmail.com 860-941-6410.

So we also just said our good byes to our crew member Shin Sasakura. He is leaving us for at least 1-1/2 years. He took a position for Electric Boats’ sister company in Pearl Harbor, HI. He will be doing tech insertions for Virginia fast attack submarines. Basically upgrades to the electronic equipment. One of those once in a lifetime opportunities you just have to go for. Shin has the blue lei in the photo below. We are all envious and proud of Shin. Aloha!

So to sum it up: Oshkosh was awesome, August was terrible, September was CRAZY GOOD!