Will's Cert 3 avionics bay and forward recovery compartment subsystem

Here are the parts used in the avioncs bay and forward recovery compartment.
Here is the forward side of the forward avioncs bay bulkhead. The u-bolt is shown in its position. The outer four holes are for 1/4" allthread. The central hole will be used to feed wiring from the interior of the avionics bay.
This shows the back of the forward bulkhead. The u-bolt is reinforced with a plate.
This shows the "euro style" terminal block installed on the forward bulkhead.
The avionics bay couper and forward bulkhead were epoxied into the forward recovery compartment with copious quantities of Mr. Fiberglass epoxy and strengthening filler.
Here is the exterior of the bay. Shear pin holes have not yet been drilled.
Here the all-thread rods have been installed into the interior of the bay. They are held to the forward bulkhead with two nuts each. The aft bulkhead is held one with one wing nut per bolt.
Here is the back of the avionics sled. It shows the mounting bars with holes for the all-thread. A thick fillet of epoxy and filler was used on both sides of each support bar.
The sled body was drilled with central holes for the MissileWorks power switches. Holes for the corner screws of the MissileWorks RRC2 altimeters are also shown.
This shows the backside of the slide and the t-nuts used to hold the MissileWorks altimeters.
This shows a test fitting of the sled tray into the avionics bay. The "front" of the tray is placed close to the airframe side. A hole above the switches serves to equalize the pressure in the compartment as well as to allow access to the switches.
This shows the front of the sled as it mounts in the avionics bay.
Here is the nose mounted on the avionics bay and sitting alongside the main airframe tube.
This shows the hole drilled in the side of the airframe for pressure equalization and access to the switches. Vent hole size calculations are in the recovery section. This also shows the placement of shear pin holes. Please see the design section for more details. You can see that all the mating tube surfaces have been soaked in CA.
Here are the ejection charge cups on the aft bulkhead.
Here are the ejection charge cups on the forward bulkhead.
This shows the aft bulkhead harnessed to the avionics tray harnessed to the avionics bay/forward bulkhead. You can also see the blind-nuts used to support the avionics tray.

The avionics bay is complete.

Last revised 2005-11-03.

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