Lockheed Vega - Project Visit - Part 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.พ. 2021
- Here's Part 2 of my February 2021 visit to Kevin Kimball's workshop, to check out the progress of my Lockheed Vega project. As you remember, we re-started the restoration in 2019, and Kevin and his son, Kallin have been rock n' rolling on it since - even through this crazy time! Well, let me tell you, I was extremely surprised, and pleased by the progress. Come along and check out what I saw. Part 1 we viewed and discussed the fuselage frame work. In Part 2 here, we'll talk about the making of the fuselage skin. Pretty Cool!
Kermit Weeks
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Kermit Weeks - บันเทิง
![รวมเพลงลูกทุ่ง 6 หนุ่มไทบ้าน ฮิตติดกระแส ชุดที่ 1 l มนต์แคน ไมค์ ไผ่ เสถียร ไหมไทย พี [Longplay]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GD2v1OjMw5I/mqdefault.jpg)
I could watch all day
wood glue-up for a cutting board is hard enough.... can't imagine an effing vega!!! fantastic job!!
What a glorious aircraft! Looking forward to seeing more on this rebuild. Kevin and Kallin are true masters. No matter what is being constructed, the attention to detail is beyond belief. Lovin' it!
Just amazing. All the work that goes into these wonderful aircraft. These craftsmen are amazing.
They are craftsmen with modern tools and they are very good.
Hi there Mr Weeks, I've just seen the video on the Vega ; all I can say is "wonderous"! Thank you!
I suppose 6 accidents sounds a lot, but at 92 years old and in the remote regions, I guess 1 every 15 years is not too bad, especially when some of them may have been minor. With the different climates acting on the laminates, the skins would have got weaker over the years.
So special to see a truly faithful restoration of this iconic plane. The trust those pioneers had with just one engine and a wooden construction is total commitment. Quite an achievement for the late 1920's.
So this aircraft mirrored us as we age.. it got heavier with all the repairs and additional wood longerons..
Fascinating.. thanks for taking us along..
I agree with the comment below . the project is in VERY capable hands. It should be a beauty. Thank you.
Not only his he a wonderful craftsman but also a great historian. That man truly loves his work! Great video Mr. Hermit
..Hermit?...hardly...Kermit!... :)
Mr Kimball is spot on about how a hull will envelope. The guy is a true craftsman.
This worth the time and effort. Like restoration of a work of art. But that is what it is.
It’s being built by the best. Kevin Kimball is FANTASTIC aircraft builder. 😁👌🏼
The artistry in construction and the forensic approach Kevin has to the reconstruction of this amazing machine, Kermit is in good hands. great episode!
Glorious. Start to finish. "Too friggin' cool..." , indeed. Thank you; so appreciated.
Your posts are great! The workmanship shown is amazing. Impressive father and son team. Very enjoyable to watch and learn. Y’all stay safe...
Kevin’s making a lovely job of this. The next project should be sponsored by The Discovery Channel...... Kermit, Kevin and the Mosquito.
Absolutely gripping talk by Kevin, his research and forensic examination of the frame of is absolutely fascinating. Looking forward to seeing more on this project. Thanks for the video.
Really appreciate these, Kermit. When a plane goes over, it's easy to forget how much painstaking work goes in before the machine goes up.
Wow! grab me on your next run over... love to see that shop!
Wish a lot more folk were this passionate about their work. Amazing amount of hand labor that goes into one of these type aircraft. Thanks Kermit and the whole crew for a brief history lesson too.
Absolutely awesome to listen to Kevin. What he is doing to rebuild history is amazing. True craftsman.
Absolutely awesome
with the advent of CNC machining and Computers, fit and finish is much better than when this stuff was new. I was reading about new built steam engine in England.... Some of the guys fitting the boiler to the frame were the same guys that did it in the 1950s. They said they have never seen a boiler sit on a frame with out having to cut/grind/fit. They were all very surprised at how well it all came together. I expect many new rebuilds are the same way.
Such an AMAZING aircraft!! I can't wait to see it being completed and back up in the air where she belongs!! Keep up the GREAT work good sir!! Thank you so much for preserving all these AWESOME aircraft you have being restored. 👍👍
Nice mix of Old World craftsmanship and New World technology. Cant wait to see it all come together!
As a full time SolidWorks user and life long lover of aircraft videos like this is amazing to me, thanks
Please keep them coming
-Brad
The top of the wood workers craft. This is so very very cool. Thank you Kermit.
Awesome plane, Awesome work. Thanks Kermit
Going to be beautiful
Thanks for the fast second part of the vid!
So cool to see bits of wood becoming a very elegant airplane.
The current way of building gliders is apart from the materials and resins still very much the same.
Fabric in or on a mold and lay it up, bit of honeycomb plastic in the center and 2-6 layers more to make half a fuselage.
Thanks again, till next!
A Masterpiece of design and engineering. Wonderful work, Kermit. Thank You for sharing.
this is so fascinating. my grandpa was a pattern maker so i can just imagine how fascinated by this he wouldve been.
Fantastic
It still looks so tiny in there, for 7 passengers, but so cool, and Kermit, your an ACE, you come over as being such a nice, guy
Gonna be a beaut Kermit
Sure will!!!
This is fascinating, Kermit.
just fricken cool
Hopefully Kermit will have an update. It would be interesting to see how far the guys have come in the last year.
Very impressive. Loved this episode, so knowledgeable, wonderful craftmanship. Top work guys.
This is fascinating.
These guys are livin'!
Outstanding!
I have made guitars and small boats out of wood. Love you documenting this effort!!! Love the progress and story. Show the young ones what wood crafting is and how the CAD technology can help ease the very hands-on skills needed for this project and similar projects. Also loved seeing the spruce goose in Cali before it went to Evergreen. Considering the goose is almost all wood, and considering it’s size.
Fantastic Kermit. Thank you.
Rich.
Now that's really Awesome !!!!
A beautiful piece of work, the Vega will be better than new when completed.
Fantastic work! Looking forward to more. Thanks gentlemen!
This is fascinating!
Such outstanding workmanship !
Appreciate you Kermit! Look forward to your videos..
Stunning job sofar!
Have you ever flown gliders kermit? You should see the original Slingsby Swallow skin!
Or the Fafnir!
Fascinating!!!
Very nice work. Enjoyed seeing the engineering tools and machining. Wish your A26 had this kind of progress. I liked it.
A...HUGE amount of skilled work awesome....Thanks Kermit...!
love to see it together
This is very cool, thanks for sharking Kermit! I'd love to see them build a Sirius on floats like the Lindbergh airplane.
Thank you. Great video.
Cool stuff! The Kimballs built up a Stearman for an old late friend of mine named Floyd Painter. The Stearman was his Last Hurrah, so the Stearman had “The Last Hurrah” painted on the fuselage.
What a piece of art. Thanks for taking the time to show it. I wonder how much of the process is similar to the original manufacturing process? No wonder they don't build airplanes lake this anymore.
We are fortunate to have many photos showing the manufacturing process of these airframes inside the lockheed factory. The forms we used to laminate the diaphragm rings copy what Lockheed used. The assembly fixture made of wood that we have bolted to the floor is a copy of what Lockheed had bolted to the floor in their factory. The process of laminating the rings is the same and all by hand. The skin form we made looks like the wooden form Lockheed had in the factory. All of the materials used for the wooden parts are the same as called out on the factory drawings.
The only changes to the techniques we are using relate to the pressing of the skin layers. Lockheed was making about 1 skin per week to meet production so they needed the male form for skin layer prep and a female mold for pressing/gluing the layers together. Since we don't need so many skins, we used the male form for fitting and for pressing/gluing the skins with vacuum bagging.
We are using power tools they didn't have back then in their shop. The CNC router is cutting parts that would have been cut with hand tools back then when labor costs were pennies per hour which is NOT true today. So, the CNC reduces labor requirements and costs. The real difference is we are doing this restoration with 2 workers instead of a factory full of men.
Go Kermit ! Inspiring Man Living his Dream ….
nice ,nice,nice wood job!!
Kermit is 2 months younger than me. I only wish I had achieved 1/2 of what he’s done in his life. Great man who loves every aspect of aviation. Jim Kimball is an old school artisan. I’m amazed at his knowledge of working with wood,such a forgotten medium to build airplanes from. When I went through A&P school they just touched on working in wood.
Amazing Perfection 👍🇺🇲
Absolute artistry ....originally & recreating.
✈
Guess your Mossie didn't have anything like the "commercial life" of the Vega, but makes you wonder what you will discover .....
In this episode, Kermit inadvertently reveals his understanding of subtle milling operations. Impressive!
Looking at the amazing wood skins & structure, I keep thinking how cool a carbon fiber Vega would be. Especially if it was crafted by someone like Kevin who understands the reasoning behind the original's intricate details!
I've made a bunch of strip canoes, never even thought about applying that to wooden aircraft. :O
Making the mold like a strip canoe worked very well. The airframe parts are made as the original design using the strip style mold to form the to wood to shape.
That is exactly what inspired aircraft monocoque construction.
The work these guys do is amazing! A far cry from building a bd-5 and bd-4 with my dad as a kid. By the way, who the hell is downvoting this? Thanks for the awesome videos Kermit! I saw you fly with the EAA Christian Eagles at Oshkosh as a kid.
That's fascinating! It's basically the same I'm doing for my RC warbird from WW 1, a Roland D VI. It was build in a similar way and I'm rebuilding it like the original, where it is possible. Only my tools are smaller 😁
I was also wondering why the name Kevin Kimball rang a bell with me. When I saw the picture of the Pitts S12 I remembered. I have a small version of this and his name is on it!
МОЛОДЦЫ !!!👍
Dear Kermie , after all these fantastic viewings, I supose I'm able to contruct my first balsa wood scale plane.
Kermit. Absolutely fabulous ! I think this is one of the most enjoyable videos , along with the previous video , that you've presented to us. I so love to see you in your element , up in the air, but this is so interesting . I'm pretty certain you've enjoyed this as well. The skill in this build is just stupifying ! I did ask how the Invader was progressing , lt must be close to flight .Thanks Kermit .
that's cool
My favorite rum from Jamaica is 40 year aged Appleton Rum.
Me to I love planes
cool
Another plane I had my fingers on...rib stitching on the wing when recovering when Dave J. owned.
KERMIT, YOU ARE TOO INTELLIGENT TO BE USING THE WORD ( FREAKING ) ALL TO OFTEN IN YOUR SPEECH ! I FEEL YOU ARE FAR ABOVE THAT !
Great to have the original,,
Must be for a museum, ?yours
Yes, it’s mine. The original Winnie Mae is in the Smithsonian.
👍
Would love to see them build an Altair...having read of the adventures of Kingsford Smith and PG Taylor. Spectacular work!
Someone is ...in Oz. Built full size mockup and continuing with the real deal.
There is an Altair being built in Georgia.
@@christopherbatty3837 , Do you have contact info for the Altair builders in Oz? It would be nice to connect with them and share information.
@@kevinkimball7711 hi - no...about 2 yr ago, saw docco on the full size mockup. You could Google aircraft restoration companies in Oz & then email each of them - someone there will know for sure.
Beautiul machine - I have ancient plans set to build 1/5 model - most difficult is replication of undercarriage. So I may chicken out and build 1/5 Northrop Gamma.
@@christopherbatty3837 , I have found the same story you are referring to in your post. The names C. W. “Bill” Whitney and Michael Costello appear as the guys wanting to build the Altair.
I feel terrible. Back in the 90's someone was trying first to SELL the original Lockheed Vega concrete fuselage female mold- and then trying to GIVE it away. I knew what it was but I didn't go get it. I knew this day would come.
Unbelievably interesting. Most people 40 and younger have NO idea what the men before us accomplished in U.S.A. "Oh Wow" is right...Moses
Most people 40 and younger know that it's the Germans that pioneered the best advances in most of aviation, and the Americans just kind of disassembled their downed or captured technology and fundamentally copied them. You see a Lockheed Vega fuselage, I see a ripoff of an Abatros D.1 - D. V fuselage.
@@choppergirl Albatros didn't pioneer the use of monocoque or semi-monocoque construction for aircraft. A Swiss marine engineer gets credit for that in 1911. Similar construction had long been used for boats so it was no great technical leap. In 1912, Deperdussin, the predecessor of S.P.A.D., built the _Monocoque_ , the first in a very successful series of race planes. Other German aircraft manufacturers built semi-monocoques before Albatros. The Vega was designed by Jack Northrop and Gerald Vultee. Who knows which predecessor inspired their work. I'm reasonably certain you don't.
@@dalecomer5951 Well, I knew Albatros Flugzeugwerke certainly didn't pioneer it... I was pointing out, the Vega was nothing special nor was American engineering.
I don't know what was going on in Northrop or Vultees mind, but I can go back further than you in your chronological excavation and tell you the female who pioneered the moncoque design ahead of them all...
Mother Nature.
A cross section of a cell, a stick of bamboo, a turtle shell, a mollusk, a flying beetle, or a million other designs nails her firmly in place as the inventor...
@@choppergirl Of the examples you give of natural monocoque structures, exactly zero are true monocoques and you missed the most common example which is often used. Clearly you don't know what it means. How could you be a judge of engineering quality?
That the Vega was a very successful design is a matter of history. That's why Kermit is spending a huge sum to restore his. It begat a whole series of successful designs and then Lockheed successfully transitioned to all metal aircraft construction. Look at the record setters and racers who flew Vegas. Their fame and fortune depended on having the best aircraft that money could buy at the time.
@@dalecomer5951 Monocoque, also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, similar to an egg shell. I left out the egg because it is the first example any one would find returned in any search result, is that what you are getting your panties in a wad about?
Neither the Vega nor the Albatros are pure absolute moncoque builds, but are still called as such because of the absence of an internal frame structure as they locate as much load bearing structure to the outside wall where it has the most geometric strength like a pipe or a sphere.
By that latitude of definition used inm this context, all my examples are monocoque.
I believe David Brown made sailboat hulls using this same technique.
This is a really etat'art construction! Awesome.
It looks like, they are making a giant bongo drum .
Don't forget to use the patented Weeks fueling method: All fuel in right wing tank, no fuel in center tanks or left wing tanks. Should fly great.
Will you use the old fuselage as a learning piece in the Fantasy of Flight?
Will you be keeping the old fuselage for display purposes?
They probably got their plywood from Canada!
How come this excellent channel only got 146.000 fans`?
It puzzles us too! :-). Spread the word.
@@KermitWeeks444 Thanks, I got the hint. Subscribed.
Excellent stuff, got me hooked just to see what the size is like for passengers, seems tight, and videos skip over the interior. What is the largest inside height and width, finished? I grew up in that type of environment and have at least briefly flown twenty different types of aircraft, it is fun to watch even waiting to find out how small the Vega is. I'm also curious how the wood is made before ya'll get it? I assume it is pealed and or cut alike conventional plywood. Plus what parts have to be split birch and how is that accomplished, just something I've contemplated living in the backwoods? I have burned some really nice wood to keep warm. Fifteen gallons of oil, do radial engines need that much of a reservoir? The part about the screws holding the forward cross-member of the wing was dis-concerning, hopefully I did not understand that correctly.
The passenger cabin is 44" wide for the front 2 rows of seats. Height is 49" tall from floor to ceiling and cabin length is 103". To compare, a Cessna 172 is 40" wide and 48" tall.
Wood for the diaphragms is 1.4 sawn Sitka spruce that we buy in large blanks and then resew and plane to size as required.
Skin veneers are sitka spruce vertical grain lumber in 8/4 boards that is the sliced into veneers for us by a company in Indiana and shipped to us on the skid as shown.
15 gallons of oil was common back then. The engines used about 1 gallon per hour and oil cooler were not very effective. So, they had large oil tanks for oil use and for oil cooling.
The screws on the crossmember of Diprahgm 4 was am improper repair done decades ago. The airplane flew for many years that way. Those parts are now replaced with proper ones.
@@kevinkimball7711 - Thanks for replying, cool, I expected it to be small yet could not tell for sure. It is going to look great when it is finished. A 207 with one pilot.
Hats 🎩 off!!! What software is Mr. Kimball using?
Kevin ought to build some more replicas- its a shame to go to that much work for just 1 plane.
He has the patterns and equipment
Do you intend a NACA engine cover?
Very cool but seems more new build than restoration. At the end, what will be percentage of the original aircraft. I agree with others. Make a display for the original hardware with history.
The fuselage is just one assembly in the entire Vega airframe. The majority of the fuselage wood will be replaced while nearly all the metal fittings, control components, window and door frames, etc., will all be retained. The tail feathers are all original structure with new ply skins. The wing is all original structure with new ply skins. Most of the landing gear parts as well as the engine mount are original. So, in all, the vast majority of the airframe components remain as original. Tens of thousands of parts make up a Lockheed Vega. A very small portion of these are replacement wooden fuselage components.
The Stearman is such a beautiful plane. I wonder what Kermit has against them.
Have you ever flown one? They fly terrible. The 220 h.p. Continental is a dog and runs like crap. It's like an old vintage school bus with a horrible engine. Not fun to drive.
What an absolutely ridiculous comment. Now I see why Kermit is losing subscribers... because of morons like this.
If the guys from Lockheed could see the CAD system today they'd flip out.
I wood work for free this is great.