Questions about "Miss Liberty"

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

OK, don't laugh. A buddy of mine had a fake alien in his living room (bachelor over 60, what do you expect, and don't say if you were single you wouldn't think it was cool too). We found a photo of an inflatable alien in, what else, a Taylorcraft. His alien was looking lonely and needed a girlfriend. An inflatable one was the best we could do. If only in a photo.
Now the good part, the door and window is just the one you are looking for!
The reason the window looks narrow at the back in some pictures is that the aft edge has a bend in it. It will look different from different angles. If I can get a photo from straight on you should be able to see how it would look in your side view, but this will ad some data points.
Hank

[cvavon]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Hank if i get time tomorrow i will pull the hitch pins and take one of the windows off the plane and photograph it and get the dimensions and post it

[1938BF50]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

I have seen (4) styles of pre-war doors, and own (3). I have (5) differnt styles of pre-war swing-out windows. Here are two door frames....both with the "tapered" window frames. Notice that one of the door frames is partially made from round tubing and the other from the "J" shaped rolled tubing. Bracing differs as well.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

The left one is what mine look like. Any idea of the ages of each and are they interchangeable? Notice both have the bend in the back edge of the window opening and how hard it is to see. That's why people keep drawing them different depending on the angle of the photo the drawing was made from. I also notice the very bottom piece is at a different angle. That would require a slightly different frame there. Probably could be taken up with the wood frame.
First time I have seen one like the one on the right.
Hank

[3Dreaming]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Anthony, the trim flipper looks OK. On the pre war the handle on the rear of the fuselage turns up not down. Location is the same. Everything else looks good.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

The left one is what mine look like. Any idea of the ages of each and are they interchangeable? Notice both have the bend in the back edge of the window opening and how hard it is to see. That's why people keep drawing them different depending on the angle of the photo the drawing was made from. I also notice the very bottom piece is at a different angle. That would require a slightly different frame there. Probably could be taken up with the wood frame.
First time I have seen one like the one on the right.
Hank

one on the left is late prewar or would also be 45. the one on the right is going to be roughly 38-39? the "A" door was similar but built out of aluminum. I have not found very many prewar doors to fit other airplanes. I think they were very hand built. Same problem with cub doors as well. All very close, but would not work without modification.

[1938BF50]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Yes...the door on the right is the original door off my 1938. I agree that they were probably built to fit the fuselage opening. I also suspect that the wooden formers/fairings around the lower door openings were built to fit. I added the LH door to my '38 and it was a royal PITA to get the frame to fit the fuselage. When I finally got the door to fit, the window frame(that was in the door) was off a mile. I had to cut and re-weld the window frame 2x to get a proper fit.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

The guys who built these planes were real artists, but I think they pinned the drawings to the wall as a "guide" and had no idea how to read them. We have to think like they probably did. "The engineers are idiots who have never built a bird house, much less an airplanes. Make it LOOK LIKE their pretty pictures, they don't know how to use a tape measure to check anyway."
When I worked on the Grumman A-6 Intruder we consistently found things that were NOTHING like the drawings. BETTER designed in many cases, but only a passing resemblance to what came out of engineering. We would take the part that was installed, measure and draw it, then put it in the system as a Field Redesign. Since the plane was out of production, we were the engineering authority for NAVAIR and had authority to make design changes.
We DID occasionally find something that made our hair stand up, but not often.
Hank

[NC43501]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Anthony, the trim flipper looks OK. On the pre war the handle on the rear of the fuselage turns up not down. Location is the same. Everything else looks good.

If I flip it, so it "hangs" up as much as the one pictured is down, would that appear correct at this angle? Or would it appear more even with the bottom line of the fuselage(appearing horizontal from this angle)?

[NC43501]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Here is the finished side view. Thanks again everyone, for all the help. If you'd like a print, I've made the full resolution version available for download to all taylorcraft.org members. It's formatted at 16x20, and will print very nicely at most photo print centers. Because of this format/size, it can easily be printed as an 8x10 as well, with no cropping needed. If you upload the file to a photo printer, insure that you check "full resolution upload" rather than "fast upload" (it may be worded differently, but look for it), also, no color correction. I'm currently working on a top view of this same aircraft, so keep an eye on this thread if you're interested...

[NC43501]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

So, here's the draft of the top view. I tried to incorporate everything I learned about this airplane during the drawing of the side view. Thoughts or suggestions?

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

I believe there should be a bit more space between the letters NX and the rest of the numerals. In other words, the letters and numbers are not evenly spaced. Now I need to go find the original regulation to prove that because I don't trust my memory.

Anyone else have the registration layout specification handy??

[M Towsley]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

If this had the flipper trim it would not have the trim on the elevator.

[Howard Wilson]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Hi Anthony, Nice work on your drawing! I'm thinkin', if it's a prewar, there might be 13 ribs in each wing. Though they changed over in '41. Think 15 came after.... Howard

[NC43501]

Re: Questions about "Miss Liberty"

Nice catches. Okay, fixed the trim tab, and the ribs. I have a photo showing the placement of the numbers on the top of the wing, and it doesn't seem to have different spacing between the letters and the numbers. It may very well be the angle, though. I've attached the photo so you can see and let me know what you think.
Thanks again, for the help.