DISCOVERY JET
Construction - Session 3

Ahead to Session 4 or Back - Session 2

Now that the fuselage sides and former have been cut it's time to glue the fuselage together and get this looking more like an airplane.

I decided to start with the right fuselage side and picked F4 to glue down first. I clamped a block of wood down to the table so I could make sure to get the bottom of the former flush with the fuselage side. Using a square I aligned the former and glue it down with thick CA glue. After it was tacked I then glued 1/2" triangle stock to both sides of the former.

Here you can see the other side of F4 with the triangle stock glued in place.

I skipped F5 and went on to glue F6. The reason being is that I want to glue F5 in place on the left fuselage side so when the time comes to join the two fuselage sides together the fuselage will line up straight and true. Using two squares I aligned the former up and glued it in place.

Another shot of the F6 former being glued in place.

On the left fuselage side I glued the F5 former I had skipped. I used a square to align the former and glued it in place. Then I glued triangle stock for added strength.

The tail end of the Discovery jet has three formers that have to be glued which I labeled F7A through C. Here is F7A being glued down to the left fuselage side.

On the right fuselage side I glued down F7B as shown in the pictured below. F7C will be glued in place after I install the horizontal stabilizer and the rudder.

Now it is time to join both fuselage sides together. Using a square I aligned the F5 former and then placed a brick on top to apply some downward force. Then I glued the former using thick CA and 1/2" triangle stock.

I repeated the above process for the other formers. Here F7A is being glued.

After F7A was glued I flipped the fuselage over and glued down F7B using the same process.

I then glued F6 in the same manner.

Another shot of F6 being glued. Everything is looking good.

While F4 and F6 were setting I decided to take this picture so you could see how the fuselage was coming along.

This is a top view of the fuselage. The formers came out good and the fuselage is straight and true.

A view from the back and side.

After a few hours I moved the fuselage to another table and shot these pictures.

Back view showing the fuselage. It is straight and true.

I temporarily added F2 and F3 formers to just get and idea of what the overall fuselage looks like. I did not glue in F3 yet because I need to drill holes for the mounting of the Flutz nose wheel.

Same picture as above but this time with the flash on.

So far construction on the Discovery jet is going well and moving right along. In the next session I will be constructing the horizontal stab and rudder. The plans actually call for spruce to be stripped along each side of the fuselage along the top and bottom. I decided to forego that and use triangle stock on each side of the fuselage. Later I will probably come back and add some spruce or triangle stock to areas where I feel need more strength. But since this is a box style fuselage the whole structure should gain a lot of strength once the top and bottom sheeting is added and glued in place.

Stay tune for Session 4 to be posted soon!

Ahead to Session 4 or Back - Session 2