Building the BD-4.....

More Construction photos

2011-10-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

As I said earlier, I'm not using this site to document construction of the airplane any more but for family and friends who wonder if I'm still working, here is a summer's worth of work.

START AT THE BOTTOM AND SCROLL UP TO SEE IN THE ORDER THE WORK WAS DONE!

Rib in forming block

Not a fishing trip haul; lots of work producing these!

Ribs on the spar finally

Rivet lay-out, drill, deburr, dimple!

Rudder stops up close

Only a person searching for wing spars

can appreciate this label on my "NOS" spars.

Stabilator on the way to being built

This line of crooked rivets is on a

warbird in Jim Cavanaugh's museum in

Addison, TX at KADS!

A person building an airplane is keenly aware

of it's flaws; at least my rivets are a little

straighter than those above which

were done by a "real" airplane builder!

Harbor Freight tools, does this LOOK like a quality tool to you?

2011-04-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Dang, they just don't make tools like they used too, I guess. I know this blog is about an airplane but I couldn't resist showing this Harbor Freight drill after drilling only 2 or 3 hundred 3/4" holes in some railroad track I'm using on a little project. You might be surprised how handy railroad track can be.

Dang, she twisted plumb in two! And heck, I think I paid a whole $12 dollars for her. What IS the world coming to?

2011-03-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

After incredible time spent sanding/re-applying glass/resin/micro, and sanding some more, the fuselage is looking pretty close after priming.

The foam sandwich has 3 oz. (per sq. yard) fiberglass on the inside with 2024T3 hardpoints routed into the foam, covered with glass then bonded with 3M 2216 to fuselage with the hardpoints riveted to fuselage members. The outside of the foam has a minimum of 3 layers of the 3 ox/yd glass cloth with two more 6 oz. layers at all the corners to tie it all together solidly. A dry-ish micro was placed over all of this and blended together with LOTS of sanding and re-applying the mcro. The glass was covered with epoxy, not polyester (which melts foam); it was not vacuum bagged but rather excess resin was squeegeed off as much as possible, then soaked up with paper towels, with copious sanding on what remained after curing.

2011-01-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

Boat seats!

2011-01-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

More construction pictures...

2011-01-11T16:56:00.000-08:00

well, this blog started out as a construction log but I changed my mind on the best way to document this project and this was not it! But since curious friends and family are interested in the progress, I've updated several more miscellaneous photos, some just for fun.

Airplane stuff around the house (or, Gina is really a GOOD sport)

2010-03-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here is one tired and scruffy but running (we were told) Continental 0-470, right off a Cessna 180.
...and here she is after some TLC and wads of money. It's a big motor, relatively speaking, for a BD-4.
Yes, we have a restaurant booth in our house, adorned with nifty Piper Comanche cowling and cool blue prop spinner.

You accumulate some interesting art objects while building an airplane, and Gina is REALLY a good sport with sharing the dining table and other areas of the house! This is an 82" Hartzell constant speed propeller---no, it doesn't leak oil on the table (yet).

Construction photos March, 2010

2010-03-30T18:30:00.001-07:00

The project begins......
The holes line up!

Area 51, watch out! This shop is air conditioned, BTW.
Extra bracing for the Continental 0-470 engine's bed mount.

Bracing is good.....drilling and countersinking holes is still fun. LOTS of holes..........
View in front of firewall looking aft.
Looking aft, fuselage about 30% complete.

Let's see, is this about a 30 degree bank angle?

Construction photos

2010-03-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

2010-03-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

The way my modified BD 4 will look...... Just kidding, but what a great old airplane!

Engine choices, choices!

2010-01-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

Once I started building a 1923 T roadster with a small block Chevy. I sold it before it was anywhere near finished, but later built a '40 Ford coupe and first put a small block Chevy in it, and literally wore it out commuting back and forth to work and college. A friend owed me money, and one day delivered a wrecked Olds 442 with a big block motor to pay the debt (I'd rather have gotten the money!). Against my better judgement that big Olds went in the '40, man, it didn't want to fit. After much work, I fired it up and learned that the heavy, powerful motor in that car was like having a battleship anchor in the nose with roller skates on the back; it would fishtail at 60 mph if you nailed it.

Later I shoehorned a 327 Chevy into a 1956 Studebaker Hawk, drove it lots of miles and sold it--something I've regretted many time times. Then came the Corvettes, three of them, but that is another story.

So when the selection of an engine for the BD-4 began, at first I gravitated toward auto engines.
After MUCH research and after reading over and over about PSRU issues, computer malfunctions and cooling problems with auto engines in aircraft, I decided to go the tried and true route and found a Continental 0-470L and after negotiating, wound up with it and a BUNCH of spare parts, including most of an entire separate engine, complete with a gaping hole in one side of the case where either a cannonball hit it or a rod was thrown.

I was told the engine "ran fine" (not the one hit by cannonfire!) when pulled out of a Cessna 180 but decided to rebuild it anyway (I was a little worried it had experienced a prop strike even though the owner said it had not) and was very pleased to find bearings with almost no wear--my micrometer actually showed them to be either "spot on" or within .001 of the new bearings I put in it anyway, and the dial indicator showed the crankshaft to be within specifications so no prop strike. One thing I learned along the way is that con rod bolts for a Ford 351 (ARP, 190,000 psi) will fit with a little work where the original bolts (120,000 psi) are about four times the price---substituting a superior part like this is something those with certified aircraft can't do but is legit for an experimental. Parts prices for these AC motors can sometimes be jaw droppers. With an overhaul manual, the engine was one of the simplest I've ever overhauled, 1940s technology but still practical for this purpose. I balanced and polished the rods down to 1/10 of a gram and balaned the pistons with the rods as well--the 6 cylinder Continental is already a smooth engine (except at idle) but this one should be even smoother.

The big 0-470 is heavier than Jim Bede originally intended but BD-4s are out there with Ford V-6s and Chevy V-8s and they are as heavy or heavier than the "real AC motor" I'm using and mine doesn't need a radiator and PSRU!

Building the BD FOUR -Introduction

2010-01-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

N440BD on the wet tarmac

This blog has been created to document the building of the experimental aircraft known as the BD-4. Even though this aircraft has been around since the sixties, it has endured because of it's relatively simple design and reasonably high performance.

Designed by Jim Bede to be built by a minimum of tools and skill, my own BD-4 will utilize a collection of tools and skills that the average homebuilder probably doesn't have as I have a background of metal work and other semi-related skills stretching back four decades.

I can only imagine how much harder it would have been to economically and safely build a homebuilt airplane before the Internet! I've spent many, many hours researching everything from materials to aerodynamics, and have read all the archives of the BD-4 builders that have gone before, trying to prevent as many problems now so they will not need to be solved later and to incorporate some valuable improvements.