Starjammer Progress Pictures

Last updated December 12, 2009

Begun as an IAC One Design aircraft in 1996, this aircraft was originally intended to be one of three identical airplanes to be flown in a three-ship airshow act by Elgin Wells, Leonard Pace and Chris Smisson. When early reports of the One Design's flight characteristics were less than stellar, I decided to modify nearly every design feature of this first prototype, while Leonard and Chris opted to fly Russian SP-95's, when early versions of that plane became available.

The Starjammer fuselage was lengthened 25" to add longitudinal stability, the wing was totally redesigned (with input from U.S. Champion Phil Knight), enlarged and constructed of composites instead of wood. This wing, engineered for +/- 15 Gs, flew successfully on Fred Meyer's Meyer 360 for several years, and will be returned to service on the new airplane. The Lycoming IO-360 engine was turned over to Robert Armstrong (1999 U.S. Aerobatic Champion) for rebuilding and modification. Help in building the fuselage and wing was provided by Leonard Pace and Fred Meyer, designer of the outstanding aerobatic kitplanes Acro 1, Atlantis, and Meyer 360. I produced the EAA's video on fabric covering, but this was my debut as a hands-on fabric installer. I was assisted by Joe Hughes and Gene Timpson (who showed up to learn, but insisted on a very high level of workmanship) Paint was provided, courtesy of Red Eagle Airsports, by PPG Aerospace. Custom seat cushions will be provided by Oregon Aero, and Starjammer's parachute is provided by Softie.

I hope you'll enjoy these pictures, documenting the creation of a very special airplane!

EW

When an aluminum turtledeck wouldn't make the compound curves required by the modified, extended fuselage, I decided to go with a composite one. First step: make a shape from polyisocyanate foam, cover it with one layer of fiberglass for stiffness, followed by "microballoons," a compound made with fiberglass resin and a powder made of microscopic glass balloons:

Then, with a mold made from the basic shape of the turtledeck (mold was 5 layers of S-glass), a carbon fiber part was made. 5 layers of large-weave carbon, with a top layer of S-glass to make for more comfortable sanding, was laid up in the mold. Note the farings in the tail cone for the vertical and horizontal fins:

Since the carbon fiber turtledeck is incredibly strong and stiff, despite being remarkably light, the steel spine on the fuselage was no longer needed, so the extraneous tubing was removed.

A little filler and the turtledeck is ready for paint:

On to the cowling. Blanks made from the Meyer 360 molds are customized for Starjammer:

The cowling blanks are joined using an aluminum strip riveted and bonded to the lower cowling blank, and then the upper cowling blank is screwed to the aluminum strip, using nut plates.

Once in place, held steady by screws and safety wire attached to the engine and fuselage, the cowling blank is ready for modification to the Starjammer fuselage, using foam, microballoons and Bondo. The upper cowling, top of the header tank and canopy nose will be laid up as one piece with carbon fiber, then cut apart. This will assure a smooth fit. In fact, the entire cowling assembly, lower and upper, will be made as one piece, then cut apart into separate components. Tim Blake made me a jig to bolt to the prop flange so that I can hang her from her nose and flip the fuselage over, making our task of shaping the lower cowling and the layup of the assembly much easier. Using foam and microballoons once again, I'll modify the blank to accommodate the custom exhaust and muffler system fabricated by Buck Roetman.

Here's the jig Tim Blake fabricated to allow me to flip the airplane over. Without the cowling blanks in place, during exhaust/muffler fabrication, it had been easy to put a strap around the prop flange to do this, but with them in the way, we needed to extend the crank shaft forward. Using an engine hoist (Tim's), I simply lift the front end and then twist the tail, use planks and saw horses for support and let 'er down:

Once upside-down, the challenge was to create a new shape for the cowling to incorporate the custom exhaust/muffler assembly. As with the turtledeck, the first step was hot gluing blue foam:

Using a Surform rasp, I roughed out the new shape, smoothing out with little pieces of the foam itself. This stuff is wonderful for this kind of work, but the dust can really hurt if you get a little in your eyes. Rubbing your eyes is a mistake.... better to hold your eye open and let it tear up.

Then, lots of microballoons & Bondo, followed by primer and parting compound, in preparation for the carbon fiber layup:

OK, let's make a cowling! I found some terrific twill weave fabric in a 60" width, so I was able to use single pieces each for top and bottom halves. With the help of Jim Fuller, Will Moore, et al, the layup took about five hours (four layers). Although we had considered flipping the airplane over for each, top, then bottom layer, it turned out that the epoxy resin was sticky enough to do it all with the bird upright.

Since the carbon cowling was made over a "male" mold, some microballoons and Bondo are required to fill the weave. Also, this was my last chance to finalize the shape of the cowling before cutting apart and going to paint:

My most nervous moments in this project were cutting the cowling assembly into its parts (upper and lower cowling, foredeck/top of header tank and canopy nose. I taped the lines out (pencil lines become obscured with carbon dust from the cutting wheel), using a laser level mounted on a tripod to align the "clamshell" cuts with the fuselage and engine.

Once cut into its components, it was time to pull the parts off the mold..... at last!!!

These parts are incredibly strong and light. Fred says they're even lighter than those on the Meyer 360, in spite of the lower part being considerably larger (to accommodate the X-exhaust & muffler systems). Grins all around.... Next step is to fashion a flange on the lower cowling to install nutplates so I can screw the cowling halves together, but first I had to re-join the cowling halves with hot glue and little wood blocks.

The flange is fashioned from carbon fiber strips and applied to the inside of the cowling after tape, used as a parting agent, is applied to the inside of the upper cowling, so that the new strip will adhere only to the lower cowling. After curing a day, nutplates are added to the flange.

I had borrowed a racing car seat mold from Jim Downing. From that, I made a fiberglass seat that fit me perfectly, but didn't allow for my parachute. So, I made a mold of my Softie Wedge parachute (which I LOVE, but never intend to deploy), attached that mold to the back of the race car seat and then made my actual seat around the joined pieces. The result, made of two layers of Kevlar, two layers of carbon fiber and one of S glass, ways about one pound and holds my parachute and me very snugly:

Once the seat was bolted into place, it was time to trim it to accept the acro harness, from Hooker. Go ahead.... ask me why it's purple!

Here's that custom exhaust/muffler system I mentioned. The mufflers are twin, 4' "glass packs," lined with Corning 703 fiberglass sound-absorbing material (just like the stuff I use in my studio). The point is to make the aircraft as quiet as possible...(I can't wait to hear what she doesn't sound like!)

My prop, an overhauled Hoffman hub with new MT blades, flew for a short time on the Meyer 360 while it waited for its new 3-blade prop (Fred's old one died with an "oops" moment on the ramp). Finding a spinner for this unusual screw has been quite a project. I'll use a plug, fabricated by Barry Smith based on a CAD drawing I'll give him, and lay up the spinner with carbon fiber.

More!

More!