Hi All, I'm Jason from the UK,
Along with my good mate we are designing and building something a bit special, a true to spec original grumman, with some awesome design aspects, a 9' version using a formula to make an exact copy of the original, and using 1930's aircraft knowhow... When my mate told me about teardrops I started looking into how people build them and straight away I was horrified to be honest, you buy 8x4 sheets, cut holes in them (which seems like such a waste), stick small amounts of insulation in them.. not very good for our English climate (wet, wet or wet), So I got my design head on and thought how can we improve this design, but let her use it all year round in our UK climate. 1st we need insulation, at least 50mm or more, only way I could see we do this is either make the frame out of metal... OR steam bent lamination, we went for option 2.
This is our 1/4 scale prototype model that has surpassed even my thoughts.
Can anyone please explain why it was called the grumman? was it because Leroy Grumman was an aircraft designer and it so looks like a wing he may of designed??