My first topic in this forum :D I hope to be able to contribute somewhat to the community.
Quite some time ago, 4 friends of mine and myself (all of them FW L-39 owners) were tinkering with the possibility of installing a K30 into the Albatros and converting it to turbine. Long story short we are not quite ready (financially) but I did built a tank as proof of concept and posted my build in this forum. Dan (yf22raptor in this forum) was interested in acquiring it and since I was not using it I sold it to him.
The L-39 is really an excellent choice for converting because it has just delicious flying caracteristics and it is very forgiving, I have done harriers and Lomcevacs with the L-39 without any nasty tipstalling (it does eventually stap but it just sinks one wing, does not flip over like others Lol)
The interesting bit around the tank I built is making the most of that space under the turtledeck where we usually just have a wire spaghetti, this way not only does it leave the whole front battery bay to mount the equipment you need but you have a neat tank taking no space and best of all it sits over the CG so there is also no shift in the CG as you burn the kerosene. It also provides more flying time than electric.
To start I took some measurements and built an aproximate cardboard dummy tank, then designed the actual tank shape in a 3D software and had a friend of mine 3D print it to check it actually fits. When I saw it had a nice fit I designed the molds, then the worst bit, a time-consuming, long and boring fiberglassing part. Eventually both halves are fit together. Below are some pics of the L-39 tank. Dan got the prototype but have since perfected the built :).
If you are interested in one of these L-39 tanks just PM me. I have also seen the new yet-to-be-released F-18 also has seemingly a nice rectangular space under the turtledeck, so when it is released and anyone can provide me with exact measurements I could eventually also build a F18 tank for anyone interested in converting the F-18? Anyway, hope you find this interesting and let me know your thoughts :)!
Quite some time ago, 4 friends of mine and myself (all of them FW L-39 owners) were tinkering with the possibility of installing a K30 into the Albatros and converting it to turbine. Long story short we are not quite ready (financially) but I did built a tank as proof of concept and posted my build in this forum. Dan (yf22raptor in this forum) was interested in acquiring it and since I was not using it I sold it to him.
The L-39 is really an excellent choice for converting because it has just delicious flying caracteristics and it is very forgiving, I have done harriers and Lomcevacs with the L-39 without any nasty tipstalling (it does eventually stap but it just sinks one wing, does not flip over like others Lol)
The interesting bit around the tank I built is making the most of that space under the turtledeck where we usually just have a wire spaghetti, this way not only does it leave the whole front battery bay to mount the equipment you need but you have a neat tank taking no space and best of all it sits over the CG so there is also no shift in the CG as you burn the kerosene. It also provides more flying time than electric.
To start I took some measurements and built an aproximate cardboard dummy tank, then designed the actual tank shape in a 3D software and had a friend of mine 3D print it to check it actually fits. When I saw it had a nice fit I designed the molds, then the worst bit, a time-consuming, long and boring fiberglassing part. Eventually both halves are fit together. Below are some pics of the L-39 tank. Dan got the prototype but have since perfected the built :).
If you are interested in one of these L-39 tanks just PM me. I have also seen the new yet-to-be-released F-18 also has seemingly a nice rectangular space under the turtledeck, so when it is released and anyone can provide me with exact measurements I could eventually also build a F18 tank for anyone interested in converting the F-18? Anyway, hope you find this interesting and let me know your thoughts :)!
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