Chapter #12, Assembling The Wings, Ailerons and Flaps

HOME

ARCHIVES

OTHER AIRCARS

Chapter #12, Assembling The Wings, Ailerons and Flaps

Included in this chapter is the basic assembly of Spar, ribs and stringers into a cohesive structure. Most of the fittings, plates and bellcranks were installed during this chapter. The Flap and Aileron were also attached to the rear spar at this point in the process. (See also Chapter #11 and Chapter #13)

ESTIMATED COST OF WING ASSEMBLY: $6000 TOTAL for EACH wing including everything -This is based on what was spent over the period of time I was building the wings, it is an educated guess and seems about right. I did have access to a milling machine and a lathe to manufacture some of the parts.
MODIFICATIONS: See Chapter #11
NOTES ON PLANS: I found errors in the plans on the front to rear Spar Spacing. I think this is because as the wings were swept back to five degrees from three degrees the spacing changed. This is not represented clearly on my set of plans. (I'll try to remember to bring them home from the hangar so I can give specifics) Basically the plans for the Aircar frame gave one measurement but the sectional diagram of the wing rib puts the spars at a slightly different distance.   As the Car Frame was already built (to plans), and the ribs were purchased (from another builder who had gone off of the plans). I ended up machining special plates that attach the rear spar to the car frame at an offset to fix the discrepancy.
    The extended wingtip section of the plans show the wingtips with a 45 degree bevel and a "sweep" to the tip itself. The plans note the sweep as being 9 degrees, but they are drawn at 6 degrees. I suspect that it is meant to be 6 degrees and that the 9 degree notation is a typo. In either case I built it (incorrectly) at 9 degrees. I don't suspect it will have much of an effect. If I find one after flight testing I will report it.
NOTES ON ASSEMBLY: Well these suckers took the better part of two years to complete. I recommend that anyone building an Aircar do the wings FIRST. If you can make it through these guys you can definitely finish the plane. There is a LOT of tedious, repetitive cutting and gluing of parts some large, and many small. I'll be glad if I never have to fit another tiny corner block on a wing assembly again. The plans have an 18" extension that is represented on a separate sheet. I drew out the rib spacing on the spars carefully before assembling. The spars and all of the parts were assembled first. Then the spars were jigged up nice and level on the table using blocks and a water level. The wings were put together one at a time as ribs were added to make the basic wing. The stringers were added on the tops but the bottoms were left open until all of the hardware for bell cranks, actuator rods, antennas, float attach fittings, and etcetera could be properly installed. The hardware was then pulled off, metal parts painted while I finished installing the stringers on the wings.
    After the basic wing was built each wing was skinned during its own five day flurry of activity. See Chapter 13 for details.
THINGS I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME: Ideally I would build both wings at the same time, but I didn't think that I had enough hangar space to accomplish this mission

Seen here are the two wing assemblies. Without the skins and most of the metal fittings the wings weigh about 75 lbs each as you see them here. This isn't a great shot but its easy to see with their large I beam spars, and numerous secondary stingers just how strong they are. The right wing is hanging from the ceiling. on top of it can be seen its flap. I am starting to build the flap for the left wing and its spar can be seen on the table.

Seen above is the flap spar with back ribs glued in place