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Dave Morris' Dragonfly Page


Fossilized Dragonfly, proving once again that some experimental aircraft projects have been under construction for a REALLY LONG time! Mine has been under construction since Christmas Day, 1992

Dave's Dragonfly Construction Log

 Yes, well here it is... I'm baring my soul in the hopes that maybe someone can benefit from this. Perhaps as you're building your Dragonfly you are wondering how long it is going to take to glass the fuselage bottom or to drill and tap the drain plate or to attach a bulkhead. Well, this may not show you how long it will take YOU, but it will show you how long it took ME to do the task!

I'll try to keep this fairly up-to-date as I go along. If you notice more than a few months going by without any visible work, call me up and slap me up 'side my head. The fact that it appears I usually begin a building frenzy right after the Ottawa fly-in is purely coincidental!!!

Pictures of my Dragonfly in progress

Click for closeupMy bird is now in a hangar at Northwest Regional Airport (52F) in Roanoke, TX
Side view November, 2003
View of the Dragonfly from the Right Side, September, 2003. The wing is suspended above the fuselage so I can work on the rear interior.
View of the Dragonfly from the Left Side, Feb, 2001. You can see the canard on the floor with the winches I use to lift it into position.
View of the Anti-servo mechanism on the ailerons, built by Nate Rambo
Gear leg attachment plates seen from the fuselage bottom (looking up into the canard hole)
Click for full-size diagram of the gear leg attachment method
Putting the wing on the roof of my van at Nate Rambo's hangar, May 6, 1998
How the wing was fixed to the roof of the van to withstand 100 mph winds
This shook up Las Vegas: Good times under a Dragonfly wing! There's a DF canopy peeking out of the inside of the van.
Fitting the wing onto the fuselage in the driveway so I can trim the wing cutouts in the rear turtledeck
My son Talon Morris sanding an experimental wing section to learn how composite construction works
Rear view of the fuselage bottom, sides, and bulkheads, held together with bicycle inner tubes, boards, and prayers. This is in preparation for epoxying the sides onto the fuselage bottom.
Rear/Side view of the fuselage with sides cemented to fuselage bottom and front and rear turtledecks resting on the fuselage. The fuselage is sitting on a pair of saw horses with casters, allowing me to get underneath easily and slide it around the garage.
Side view
How I plan to fit my 6ft 5in body inside the plane. Note the 1 inch white extension I added to the seatback. I also slid it back 2 inches. Justin Mace slid his back farther than that.
Hoop style gear under construction. Note the brake lines that I embedded into an aerodynamic foam extension onto the trailing edge of the gear leg. I wrapped the entire leg with 45 degree BID after adding the trailing edge.
Proof that Dragonflies will float in water. (Well, some anecdotal evidence, anyway.)
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