Girocopter part 1

I'm now working on rehashing an old unfinished piece. I had palnned to make a figure sat in a chair below a dirigible, powered by 2 propellers. This is now going to be a girocopter, similar in design to the gironaut. My aim is to use lots of brass struts to give intersting surfaces as well as capture the feel of old fashioned cloth and wood planes which used lots of cables to keep the wings rigid. See this photo of the boxkite plane in Bristol museum

Over the next week or so I'm going to document as much of the making process as possible, starting here with the initial sketches of the copter and engine bits.


This design is pretty much what I'd already made, showing addition of controls and tubing etc.




Trying to work out ow the wings and flaps will fit to frame.



 

Ideas for some bits and pieces to add to the engine. I also considered alternate ways of designing the seat/cockpit, from very deep bucket seats with lots of consoles to the simple upright one I've gone with.

At one point I thought of having the figure on a bike.