Scratch Built 31" Cat

[jfrabat]

So, a couple of months ago, my son and I decided to build our first joint RC project. He wanted to start with an airplane (I have some), but I figured something closer to the ground would probably be more appropriate. So, I looked online, and found some plans for a 30" cat (and, yes, it is 30", not 31"; sorry for the error in the title!).

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I had some balsa laying around (from my planes), so we got started.

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We first built the skeleton out of balsa, and sheeted the whole thing in 1/16 balsa. I reinforced the tunnel with some 1/32 ply (and a little carbon fiber), and added some foam to the front part for flotation. Cockpit was made like a model airplane, using structure to get the shape and then sheeted in balsa and fiberglass (sides were basically sculpted!).