Wing
My Aluminum Wet Wings, designed
by Callbie Wood of Wilson, North Carolina.
by Callbie Wood of Wilson, North Carolina.
The airfoil has the exact shape and size as the Wittman wooden wing. The cord of the flaps and ailerons are deeper and the ailerons and flaps are longer due to the different shape of wing tip. The wing tip was designed by using a wind tunnel, by John Thorp and is identical to his Thorp T-18 wing tip.
My wing was exceptionally easy to make and assemble and sure enough they fit on the plane and the leading edges lined up. This surprised me! These wet wings hold 18 gallons each in the four bays, between the spars, closet to the fuselage. The metal in the wings is 2024-T3. The rivets on the inside are all solid aluminum; all the rivets on the outside are 1/8, flush, Cherry Max.
The time consuming part of making a rib is cutting out the aluminum blank; after that it
only takes about 20 minutes to bang out a good rib.
only takes about 20 minutes to bang out a good rib.
I built my spars on top of these crates because it was the right height for me to work.
They have a lot of rivets but it does not take long to get the hang of shooting rivets.
They have a lot of rivets but it does not take long to get the hang of shooting rivets.
It took me awhile to figure out how to drill the holes in the wing root.
The spar does not look level in the picture but I assure you it was when I drilled the holes.
The spar does not look level in the picture but I assure you it was when I drilled the holes.
Putting the ribs and spars together was exciting but when they were togeth what do you do with one wing while you work on the other?
It looks substantial and it is but it is light as a feather.
Working on the Pro-Seal, sealing of the spar. This is important because you can't get at it later without cutting holes in the wing skins.
This shows where the fuel goes, between the main spars and in the first four bays.
You can see that I found a place for that extra wing.
You can see that I found a place for that extra wing.
Callbie told me the bending of the wing skins would be the easiest thing to do in building his design of metal wings - He was right, they were!
Pro-Seal - What fun.
My friend Tom knows about Pro-Seal, he had it everywhere. This shows the four bays that hold the 18 gallons of fuel. The vent is at the upper right corner of the tank (far rib by Tom) and runs through the top of the center three ribs and right out to almost the fifth and outside rib of the tank where the filler cap is located.
Getting ready to seal the top skin. There are only three skins on each wing and they go from the back spar around the front of the wing and back to the back spar.
The two wing skins are ready for the Cherry Max rivets.
Testing the fuel tank for leaks. The balloon would sag overnight when it was cool then inflate again when it got warm again in the afternoon.
- Features in my web -
Home - SoCal Wind - Fuselage - Wing - Seat - The Building of my Tailwind
The Building of my Tailwind Continued - The Initial Flying - Journey Home
Metal Wing? - Wood Wing?
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