| NoCom
Tailbox Project |
What could we possibly do to make the NoCom speed Missile
faster? After much discussion, the Chicago four area NoCom
riders (Alan, Sean, Larry and Warren) decided that it would
be faster with a Razz Fazz style fairing. Because none of us
wanted to take on the project individually, this will be a
group WISIL project.
Rick W. volunteered to perform the CAD work to allow
templates to be easily printed. The first step of this was to
take measurements of the NoCom, and decide general fairing
shape.
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January 2008
Warren took pictures of the
NoCom and made measurements. |
| Alan, who was very familiar
with the Razz Fazz fairing, added the general fairing shape
in red. |
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Sean is researching NACA
wing shapes and other aerodynamics issues. |
| Here are some pictures of
the actual NoCom tailbox.
Thomas Schott on his Razz
Fazz at the IHPVA championships in 2002. |
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Dennis Ahrens riding Thomas'
Razz Fazz at the IHPVA championships in 2002. |
| Chris Evans on the VK3 with Razz Fazz TB |
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Rick Wianecki's first scaled CAD draft of
the NoCom RF style TB. |
1/29/08
Alan suggests changing rear
profile |
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Warren shows Ricks TB on NC Side |
| Warren shows Ricks TB on NC
Top |
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Warren resizes the RF TB for the
NC. |
1/30/08
Alan refines the outline (in
white). |
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Rick refines his CAD drawings
(new side view in yellow) |
| Rick generates final
templates. This version of the templates is designed to be
constructed of 1/2" insulation foam, then skinned with
strips of 1/2" foam. |
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2/02/08
Rick generated the templates in 2" slices. This will allow
us to cut out sections of 2" foam based on full scale
drawings, and stack them together.
The stack of foam will be sanded
smooth, covered in fiberglass, and then smoothed further to
make a male plug. |
2/10/08
Rick generated the CAD drawing DXF files with the individual
layers templates on it, and Warren had the drawings printed
onto four 36"x96" sheets of paper by Kinkos. The tailbox
will require 3 sheets of 2" - 4x8 ft foam to construct the
plug. |
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Alan made a rendering of what
the tailbox would look like when using red
texalium as the outer layer.
Alan is building his own tailbox
for his NC3 because it's different that the NC1 and NC2
owned by Warren and Sean's. |
3/01/08
Warren and Sean spent a Saturday building the initial
foam core of the fairing. 3 - 4x8 foot sheets of 2" foam
were acquired, and the drawing were taped down to them.
Here, Sean uses a pounce
wheel to transfer the pattern to the foam.
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Sean has a happy #11 smile after
rough cutting all 34 sections of the fairing.
That makes it 68 inches long,
or 5 feet 8 inches. |
| Warren stacks the sections
onto wooden dowels to check the alignment. |
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Sean applies the dabs of 5
minute epoxy to glue the sections together. A pile of glued
sections sits to the left weighted down with some paint
cans. |
| Sean stands next to the
stack of foam to show the scale of the fairing. |
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Modern art.
Now comes the sanding and
shaping. |
4/13/08
Sean Costin relates the following:
"I took down the edges on the Tailcone today."
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Photo by Sean Costin
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Photo by Sean Costin
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"To get it ready I used a
jigsaw and cut a 3/4" slot in the bottom to accommodate a board I would
use to mount the tailcone in my Workmate. I used a 2 part foam to bond
it in place. This worked quite well." |
"I used a 12" rasp to do 90%
of the work and used a sanding spline to top it off."
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Photo by Sean Costin
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Photo by Sean Costin
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"I think there are either some
problems with the plotting or the Cad templates because there are some
bulges in areas where they really should not be."
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| "My brother related some
problems he had with plotters. He measured up some things that were
supposed to be 100% and found that they did not match the dimensions."
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Photo by Sean Costin
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Photo by Sean Costin |
"The photos illustrate an area
about 6" from the end of the tail toward the top where it should be
narrower and a sharper dip below and forward. These problem areas are
symmetrical to each side, so I am confident that it came from the plot." |
5/24/08
Sean and Warren found time to work on the tailcone.
To figure out how to shape the leading
edge of the tailcone, we sat on the NoCom and drew outlines around our
bodies. We then cut out a template which we attached to the leading edge
of the tailcone to visualize how to shape it. |
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Because our shoulders
are actually 4" or so forward of the NoCom seat back, we needed to scoop
out the center of the back area to ensure a good fit between our
shoulders and the tailcone. |
| Sean sits on the
talicone to show the shoulder to leading edge area. |
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Side view, Sean
demonstrates the world record position. We have begun to cut off the
area the are obviously not needed |
| Front view. Looks good! |
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After more filing, Sean
does a second test fit. |
| Looks better. |
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Warren - top view. |
| Side view showing head a
neck area. We'll need to cut more out for hear and helmet clearance. |
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Grr, where's he at? Lemmee at
him... Oh. Warren demonstrates the
riding position on his NoCom. |
| The shape is looking better. |
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Sean's elbows are up higher
than Warren's. We definitely need more helmet clearance |
| Shaping is done for the day. |
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Here you can see where we
added expandable foam to the fairing sides to fill in the low areas. |
| Front view with Sean's
NoCom. |
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Fairing bottom from
front. |
