Not to highjack another's thread (sorry about that) here's where I'm at on mine.... I started the buck by laying a profile on two pieces of plywood, guessing at the measurements.. From there I basically knew that a tanker was round, So about every foot I made a round station. The bottom was a little different in I added a flat area to help keep the car low. Made a detachable cowel area, since this will be a lift off piece
Nice work. That will be interesting to see the flatter bottom. I have a wood worker friend who will hopefully help me make the cradle for my Albatross tank when we get to that point.
I have started a thread on another site...If my updates here get a little slow, you can check it out here: http://metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13989 Once the buck was built, I moved on to building panels, usually about 24" x 30" picking up three stations at a time to tell me what the shape would be. When I get them done I'll tig them together. Here's my dream...
Wow.. Just wow... Thats some awsome work man, way better then I could hope to do, but it kinda reminds me of the balsa wood models I built as a kid Edit: I just saw your in Golden, is that Colorado? I got a family down there and make it down there every few months, if you ever want an extra set of hands let me know
Got some more done..Some of the panels are a B1tch....Here's some pics After some welding had to see what it goin' to look like....
As I said above, nice work. I was just thinking again about the flat bottom and I pose this question more as a hypothetical than anything else, certainly no criticism is meant. By making the bottom flatter, you really are making the longitudinal cross-section into an airfoil. I heard that running on the lakes the big problem is fighting lift in order to maintain traction. Therefore, is the flatter bottom going to create a problem or does ground effect negate it?
I'm working on a belly tanker also, I guess with the winter months I'm just eating more!.... Looks great and a very cool project!
It would seem to me that the flatter bottom would make it shaped like an airplane wing (creating lift). Not sure about the ground effect.
Good point. But if you cut the wind from going underneath, it becomes a suction cup... In theory..... You might get to watch it launch like rocket into out space :0
The top or dorsal may act as a spoiler, which kills lift. Maybe it works out to be a wash. Surely some smart HAMBer on here has the aerodynamic credentials to address this. I just flew airplanes, I did not design them.
The only tank that I have found from back in the 50's that had a flat bottom was the So-Cal. When I was building P-38 fibergl*** tanks at Rod 'n Race, we offered either a stock or flat bottoms. Ron Richardson's flat bottom tank has been over 200 many times at Maxton and Bonneville with no "lift" issues. We took 6" off the bottom which did not create a very large flat area to act as a lift surface. It did allow the whole body to ride 6" closer to the salt which lowers the center of m*** making everything more stable.
The Jalopy Journal
