I deal with Alloy Sales in Hertfordshire for my metal supplies, because I spent sixteen years living just along the road from their warehouse in Welham Green. The only other aviation connection associated with Welham Green is that the first aircraft in WW1 to shoot down a German airship did so thereabouts.
I ordered a six-inch box-section from them recently in order to build a scale model for the second phase of the GoFly challenge, though in the event it arrived too close to the deadline and is thus surplus to requirements. If this was Airbus prototyping an eVTOL it would sit at the back of a hangar gathering dust until relieved by some or other employee who figured it would make say a ventilation duct for the garden shed.
This being TEAM TELEDRONE however it will effectively be recycled, by my swapping it for the lengths of alloy section required for the flying prototype.
They correct a long-held misapprehension of mine, which was that alloy sections are stored in unit lengths of six-metres. It seems they are in fact stored in five-metre lengths, although I figure we can just about construct what we need given two of those, where one will provide for the upper rig and two of the uprights and the other the lower rig and remaining uprights.
I have elected as well to go for the 2mm thickness instead of the three so as to minimise the weight, and because the build-philosophy is basically suck-it-and-see viz. failure means that we will try again at the thicker gauge.
The outline seen above will provide for a 35cm square aperture within a 45cm square flight-deck provided courtesy of the top-plate. This ampler girth allows me to stand full-square if required with a side-stick to each hand, instead of 45 degrees with a 'Playstation' controller.
There's method in this madness...
