Don’t Worry. She’ll Hold Together.

While feverishly working on mechanics, we’ve also been working on the Falcon canopy. Andee has been channeling her inner cosplayer, spearheading the construction and application of the foam panel sections to the aluminum frame.

I created mechanical drawings using the scaled-up 3D printable model that we found on the internet. Andee printed them and cut them out to use as patterns for the foam pieces

The drawings aren’t perfect, but they’re good enough to figure out how big everything should be and where to place it.

I spent many hours trying to weld tiny pieces of wire to the canopy without destroying the wire. Since I am using welding filler wire that is designed to melt completely, this was too difficult and I was too inconsistent. Instead of welding, I decided to wrap the wire around the frame tubing like metal twist ties. 

Things went more smoothly after that. The aluminum wire is soft enough to bend without breaking (mostly) and the wrapped joints stiffen the cage better than I expected.

To make putting the skin on the canopy a little easier, I worked out how the canopy mounts onto the Falcon. This way, the canopy can be worked on in place.   I also added the wireframe for the front mandibles. Working in place has already revealed that part of the lower section of the mandibles interferes with pedalling when in a turn, so we’ll need to cut that back a little to compensate.

Andee and the Skin Team ™️ have been shaping the foam panels and adding details to the surface.

Step by step. Inch by inch. We get ever closer.