Ok given my wing kit despatch is now 3 months late, I am running out of things to do. So in order to keep making some progress I have decided to have a go at something new, the top wing centre section fuel tank.
I have ordered the aluminium sheet locally and ordered parts from Aircraft Spruce. I found a bead roller and sheet metal brake online so am fully equipped to do this.
This week I started with making the template/jig for the ribs for the tank. In the picture below the 5/8″ thick template will be used to bend the flange edges over the template. You can see the template sitting on the template for the inside dimensions of the actual spacing between the spars. The tank will be about 40″ wide. If you are building this tank, note that the Steen plans have the incorrect width of this tank on the plans. Re-measure to be sure. I also want to put a capacitive probe in it…these have about 3/4″ on the outside of the tank so you need to make allowance for that spacing. Remember the tank needs to be centred to be balanced too so whatever space you leave on one side, you will need on the other.
A Steen Skybolt 