Aviation & Car tech: Reviews, How to's, Products, Shows, Design & Manufacturing, photography, video, Home built aircraft, UAV / RC, General Aviation, Car fix & mod
I recently got to visit the Museum on a trip to Colorado, very impressive and well worth the visit for anyone who likes to see historic military aircraft.
Of special interest my Grandfather worked at Lowry for a few decades working on various simulators, training aids and general handy man for the USAF. Going through old family photo albums here is a picture of him (centered) receiving an award from one of the AFB leaders
Sometimes they offer coupons so be on the lookout.
There are some alternate online options but the size may be different than what is covered here
As for the hinge to handle direction there was a 1/2″ gap so I used some high end packing foam in a nice dark grey from my Creality Ender 3D printer for that
Speaking of witch Creality is my go to for 3D printing equipment, its worth checking out
I had to cut out some of the foam insert for this to fit. I’m surprised that FrSKY did not already have this area opened up as it would save them foam / cost and weight.
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3), interacting with the X20 Screen
While the X20 series is amazing technology and the screen is something to behold its also alot of small menu selections for average fingers to interact with.
For this part I found a good stylus on Amazon that works well with the screen and makes it easier to use = https://amzn.to/4qcRAoe
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4), protecting the screen
I wanted to cover the screen while in the case or just when sitting out side, also needed a way to hold onto the stylus in part 3), enter the cover
Designed in Rhino 3D one of my favorite Cad Programs this easy to print cover takes around 1 hour on a modern core xy machine
I still had several inches to take up in the Apache case so I decided to make a storage box for anything related to the X20,
The lids I went to town and made them have an ISO grid pattern as its stuck in my head after working on Aircraft Gas Turbines for a lot of my career. Also has a kind of NASA Equipment look to it. Silk / Metallic filament is a must for this!
The Bell X-22 was a ground breaking VTOL aircraft developed in the 1960’s and flew up to 1984. 2 of them where built and beyond the pivot mechanism featured some similarities to modern day quad copter “drones” While purely an X plane lessons learned from this program made it into modern production VTOL aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-22
Its one of the few X planes I remember as a kid getting into aviation. I’m sure James Cameron was inspired as well as the fictional SA-2 Samson in Avatar and the HK-VTOL in Terminator has a similar appearance.
With modern Drone components and 3D printers I’m sure creating a functional scale model would be quite possible for a crusader willing to take on the challenge.
16-Color Printing: 4-bay CFS system lets you print up to 16 colors in one job—no pausing, no extra handling.
Bigger Space, Bigger Ideas (350 × 350 × 350 mm): Large chamber for props, prototypes, RC parts, or printing multiple models at once.
High-Speed Performance with Precision: Step-servo motion system delivers smooth surfaces and crisp details even during fast, high-acceleration printing.
Actively Heated Chamber for Engineering Materials: Stable temperatures make filaments easier and more reliable to print.
Dual AI Cameras for Fail-Safe Printing: Smart to adjust flow rate and alert failures
Sturdy “Matrix” Frame for Stable Output: Die-cast, enclosed structure reduces vibration for consistent quality, layer after layer.
*K2 Plus Combo: K2 Plus + 1* CFS+4*500g filament（In the box）
The Seawind is a unique Sea Plane that first flew in 1982 and was offered as a kit plane up to 2002. Direction shifted to a certified version but the 2008 recession ultimately took it out with actual efforts ending a few years later
The original Seawind 2000 had a 200 hp IO-360 followed up with the 3000 that had a 300 HP engine. Over 80 kits where shipped and they do show up on the used market.
Despite it’s high mounted engine power vs pitch dynamics seemed to be manageable.
Living in Florida and being around the LoPresti operations at KVRB I found out LeRoy designed a seaplane called the Spectra that had its first flight in 1969 that appears to be the genesis of this kind of vertical stab mounted engine sea plane. I’m sure the Seawind designer(s) where aware of the Spectra and where influenced by it.
There has been quite a few all foam / ARF based versions inspired by the Northstar that have come out in the years after the electric aircraft revolution of the mid 2000’s
Was able to get a bunch of 8mm tapes out of storage and found this video from the late 1990’s of a Bird of time glide with an engine pod on wheels. granted the landing gear setup could have been way better but it did fly decent.
Gould Aero 