Colin Hales, wing tanks and undercarriages have come up in the group discussions Colin has an inverted U of aluminum for the undercarriage of his KR2. Her is his description of it. " My undercarriage is made of 7075 T6 Aluminum. It's 4 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick bar that is then bent cold. When I tried to bend it to shape I kept snapping it and it took some experimenting to be able to shape it in to the correct profile I needed. It is very strong and springy. I'll attach some photos of the press I needed to bend it and the continual moving technique to bend it to stop the localised work hardening" [ I can?t find the pictures] There was a KR2 project from California that was for sale. There was a picture. I has an inverted U undercarriage. And if one were to Google "project G-BBBB" one could see how its builder attached the inverted U to his Taylor Monoplane.
As Colin flies through eastern Russia he has been challenged to have enough range in his KR2. He has been reduced to bladder tanks in the copilot's side of the plane. The moral of the story is that if one is building a KR to provide as much room for fuel as possible. In extreme this means cowl tank to keep the cg forward as well as wing tanks behind the main spar that will tend to move it back. My own project has fittings on the front of the main spar next the floor to attach an external tank of the occasion ever arises. Yes I know, there could be a problem with exhaust from the engine. Colin has become a friend. He came to visit last summer and landed at Stratford Ontario. He spent 3 or 4 days. Met some of my flying friends and got over to Kitchener and met Gary Wolf the president of RAA CANADA, the equivalent to EAA US and LAA UK and the rest of the national groups. Colin's adventures are certainly an inspiration KRers and flyes generally. Bill Weir
