Home Depot aircraft an ultralight built from
plans, with material from the local Home Depot, the Motor glider 101
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Student pilot describing first solo flight: "Your mouth gets dry, but you
can lick your hands because they're sweating." |
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Click here for this months specials! |
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Motor glider 101
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The Motor glider 101
According to designer/ builder Jack Harper the Motor glider 101 materials
were basically purchased from the local "Home Depot," and the design was
thought up during watching soap operas - and nothing else to do."
The plane uses all wood construction. The covering material is actually "door
skins." The original plane took just over 3 months to design and build.
The two 10 HP Tecumseh motors are mounted directly to two by two's,
hollowed in the center with 1/8 inch plywood on the side. No rubber mounts are used! The
props are direct drive and home made, and were "whittled out of wood", they were
redesigned several times until optimum performance was reached.
The wings use have a plywood main spar, the ribs are styrofoam, and 1.7 ounce dacron
sailcloth is used as covering material. According the Jack he has "over 50 years of
experience building planes."
The plane on display had about 7 hours on it with the last flight made the week prior to
the show. Jack reports that it fly's along at about 40 to 45 mph. When asked how much the
average person would have invested in materials - the reply was "if you go down an by
everything from Home Depot, the average person will have about $1,000 invested in engines
and material, but he is going to have to scrounge something up to whittle his own
props." Of course materials like the 4130 steel tubing, glider cloth, etc will have
to be sourced out somewhere else.
For more information contact
Jack Harper
6140 Seaboard Ave.
Jacksonville FL. 32210
904--771-7696
at the time of writing plans were $50.00 |
| For a web video interview with the designer of the Home Depot
ultralight subscribe to the Ultralight Flyer web video magazine. |
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