Busy busy. Work, kids, gold prospecting, astronomy in the dome, knife making, Viper building, it never ends. COVID has hit our family twice now, so I'm currently in ISO again for the next 7 days.
I got the Viper weighed using vehicle scales borrowed from a local racing club. Total 752kg, but likely to reach the ton by the time I've skinned it, put the other wing and gun on, plus a few layers of paint and some extra mechanical accessories.
Now I can get to work. I built some vehicle dollys out of 14mm thick leaf spring stiffeners. Each trolley is rated to 800kg+ and has been tested, so well over engineered. Now I can move it around in the workshop and with the addition of some securing stirrups over the foot, I can winch it up the ramp of the trailer, currently in the design phase.
I've made a quick cardboard concept. It may go to three axles and they may or may not have to be positioned further rearward, but that's for the engineers to decide. The roof comes off in overlapping sections, the sides fold down to become platforms. Stabilisers wind down in the corners, bollards and stairs pop into holes and recesses, plus a ladder over the wing to enter the cockpit. There's a lot going on.
Finally, I got some hardware to test for the reaction control systems (RCS). 8 ports forward and 8 ports rear, from an on board air compressor mounted inside the nose, to be controlled via Arduino, connected to the joystick in the cockpit. These will fire each RCS port individually, picking up a bit of water from a reservoir via a siphon between the solenoid valve and the port.