Holcomb

The project I have chosen is a Fokker D-VI (that's a roman numeral 6) It is a 3/4 scale tube and fabric biplane replica. Very simple gusset and pull rivet construction is used for joining the 6061 T-6 aluminum tubes together. There are several different ways to make one of these planes. The cheapest way is by far to obtain a set of plans through someone like Circa aviation and scratch build. Or you can do what I did, and go through www.airdromeaeroplanes.com and purchase one of Robert Baslee's kit planes. His kits are some of the most complete in the industry. He has everything from 3/4 scale D6, D7, E-III And his full scale models include a DR-1 triplane (red baron), And Nieuport 17, 24 full scales as well. I toured his factory in Holden, MO about a week ago and he is just a hell of a good American with a love for airplanes too. He has a CNC machine shop inhouse and machines all of his own gussets, fittings, and other difficult to make parts for the kit builder. All you have to do is drill holes and pull rivets, short of bend a little pipe for the rudder bow and for the ribs also. The smaller gage gussets you will have to finish cut to size with aviation shears. I have not started on the fuselage yet but it sounds like the thicker material gussets used on the fuselage are pre cut to shape on the CNC machine and all you do is drill them and rivet them on. Compared to an RV or a wooden plane I believe this construction method might just be one of the easiest ever invented. Feel free to browse the Airdrome website and check out Rob's designs.

Here's the rib jig. I started off using a jig built with Nails as (cams) and cut off clothes pins, but found that small pieces of wood made for a much better arrangement for holding vertical and diagonal members. I should begin building the first rib very soon. Warren

Here's a link to a GREAT summary page including a couple of videos of the D-VI in action. This is a PDF file so you should have the free Adobe PDF viewer installed.