Welcome to the new home of the Facetmobile and Aero News.

It’s been a while since my last BatRay update, and I’m pleased to be able to bring you one now. Given the silence, some of you may have wondered if I was doing much work on BatRay. Actually, the silence was a symptom of how busy I have been, working on some very tricky and challenging parts of assembling the airframe, although you would be forgiven for thinking the opposite.

Now that this phase is past, I endeavor to write updates more regularly going forward.

This Newsletter is Moving to a New Host:

Before I get to the BatRay news, some administrative updates:

TINYLETTER.COM where I have been hosting this newsletter until now is sunsetting on February 28. Accordingly, I am moving over to Substack.

The new URL is

All current subscriptions will move over to Substack automatically. You don’t need to do anything, but expect that my emails will be from Substack rather than Tinyletter.

BatRay Update:

In my last update, I said:

 “Now that the wings are rigged, I'll match-drill the wing-attach fittings for the wing-attach bolts”

The attach fittings on the bench before I clecoed them in place in the structure.

These fittings are entirely hand fabricated. There are several hundred holes in them for rivets and bolts. Every hole has to match a corresponding hole in another part.  It is a slow, meticulous task to match-drill them all to align properly.

As of this week all of the pilot holes line up. I have re-mated the wings and verified that everything fits. All of the rivet pilot holes match and are ready for riveting.

I’m very happy to have reached this milestone!

BatRay Structure With the Wings Mated

The next task is to drill out the bolt holes to their final diameter.

Once I get that done and bolt the fittings in place I will be able to start driving rivets.