Question for Ralph

[Kandace]

Hi Ralph, I'm going to build a Gyrobee and I have a question about the plates that hold the keel, mast and tailboom together. Why was stainless the material of choice for this part?

Thank you
Kandace

[Ralph]

In putting together the prototype, I elected to use steel for the cluster plates to avoid the need to perform a full-blown stress analysis on the plates. Loading is complicated a bit by the fact that the tail boom was designed to be removable, making it possible to move the aircraft into a standard garage. Once the decision was made to use steel, stainless was a logical choice to eliminate worries about corrosion. Just for the record, the original cluster plates look like new and there is no visible distortion of the holes on the keel, mast, or tail boom.

Current StarBee kits use aluminum cluster plates, based on an engineering analysis that suggests that the aluminum has ample reserve strength in this application.

Ralph

[Kandace]

Thank you very much Ralph, I appreciate your time.