Art Zemon's Blog Posts

June 29, 2013 was a perfect day for putting the wings on my Bede BD-4C airplane for the first time. “With a little help from my friends” and family, we carried the wings out of the garage, rolled the fuselage out into the sunshine, and then installed the wings. Here is a shot of the […]

The main spar of the Bede BD-4 is a 6 inch diameter aluminum tube. This is, literally, the piece from which the entire airplane hangs as the wings fly through the air. As you can imagine, it is kind of vital that the fuselage be well attached to the spar. Here is a photo of […]

I finished the right wing aileron of my Bede BD-4C airplane tonight. Both ailerons and both flaps are now complete. Here (again) are the flap and aileron for the left wing: And here, in its debut appearance, are the flap and aileron for the right wing: Eventually, there will be a lead counterweight attached to […]

Bonus photo: With the aileron ribs bolted to the torque tube, I did a test installation of the aileron on the left wing of my Bede BD-4C. Wonder of wonders, it fit perfectly with no side-to-side wobbling and no trouble installing the last bracket. 🙂 After confirming that the ribs were exactly the right distance […]

I am starting on the left aileron for my airplane. On the Bede BD-4C, the ailerons are operated by 10 foot long torque tubes which run from the fuselage, through the flaps, all the way to the wing tips. Here is a picture of the torque tube for the left wing with the aileron ribs […]

Check out this photo of the outer half of the flap for the left wing of my Bede BD-4C airplane. (You can click on it to see it larger, as with any other photo.) You may think that this photo looks just like the ones that I posted on May 20 or perhaps even the […]

At long last, I am doing something large that actually looks like an airplane part! 😀 I am making the flaps for my Bede BD-4C airplane. The wings are 10 feet wide; the flaps are made of two 40 inch wide halves and the aileron is another 40 inches. To make each half of the flap, […]

Last night I installed the outer aileron support bracket on the right wing of my Bede BD-4C. Here is a bonus photo with all of the brackets labeled so you can see what all I have been babbling about for the last couple of weeks. Click on the picture to see a larger version. The […]

Having completed the mid-flap support brackets on the wings of my Bede BD-4C airplane, I continued working along the wing to the inboard aileron support bracket, which supports the outboard end of the flap and the inboard end of the aileron, and then to the outboard aileron support bracket. The outboard bracket was easy; it […]

The original wing design for the Bede BD-4 used a one-piece flap, about seven feet long. The new metal wing on my Bede BD-4C airplane uses a two-piece flap, with each half being about 3.5 feet wide. The ribs at the ends of each half are tied together with a pair of 1/4 inch steel […]

I built a jig to help me assemble the flaps and ailerons of my BD-4C. Note the use of aviation-grade aluminum gutter flashing to face the jig, obtained from the aviation aisle at the local hardware store. Here is a shot with a flap skin and three ribs set into the jig.

I started on the flaps for my Bede BD-4C airplane this week. The adventure began on Monday when Jim and Patrick and Rich very kindly came over and helped carry the wings out of the basement and into the garage. Each wing is 10 feet long and weighs about 85 pounds. The weight isn’t so […]

I am finished working on the controls for my Bede BD-4C airplane! (At least for awhile.) The last month has seen a bunch of fiddly little stuff that has been hard to photograph so I have not posted anything. Tonight, I finally wrapped up the controls. The rudder pedals are hooked up to the rudder. […]

I am going “off plan” for the tunnel of my Bede BD-4C airplane. The plans call for using sheet metal screws to attach the top of the tunnel to the walls. I am not a fan of sheet metal screws; they always seem to loosen and fall out. After replacing the screws a couple of […]

February was “tunnel month” on my Bede BD-4C project. The floor of the airplane will look like an old fashioned rear wheel drive car, with a tunnel down the middle. The difference is that the BD-4C’s tunnel will house controls, brake lines, and electrical cables instead of a drive shaft. I started by making a […]