Wings: Left & Right Wing Assemblies

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March 12, 2005: (1.5 hrs.) Got to work on fabricating the brackets for the wing jig.  Here I am mounting some angle aluminum to the posts.  It is important that these are level.

 

 

Each horizontal piece of angle aluminum gets a brace also made out of aluminum angle.
The outboard wing rib needs to have a 5" length of angle aluminum temporarily bolted to it.  This will be used to attach the outboard portion of the wing to the jig.  I found that having the outside edge of the angle aluminum sit flush with the outside edge of the outboard rib flange was just right for getting the wing level in the jig.
The inboard end of the wing spar gets clamped in place on the wing jig.  I used some scrap aluminum between the clamp and spar to help protect things.
The outboard end of the wing spar (the end that had the temporary piece of aluminum angle bolted to it) gets bolted to the wing jig angle aluminum.  I used some scrap aluminum under one end of the bolted section to level things front-to-back.
The next thing to do is remove any sag in the spar.  Here I am attaching fishing line to a cleco in each end of the main spar.  With no sag, the fishing line should cut through the middle of each rivet hole along the entire spar.
Here you can see I had about 3/8" sag in the middle of the spar.
I used some cinder blocks and jack to lift the center of the wing.
Now the center section shows no sag
I also made sure the spar was level between the wing jig posts.  It was :)
Next, a plumb bob was hung from a cleco on each end of the main spar (the same one that the fishing line was strung from).  A measurement is taken from the plumb line to the rear spar.  Any difference in this measurement between the two ends of the spar means there is a twist in the wing.   After all the leveling and shimming I did in the prior steps, I had now twist at this point.
Once everything is level, straight, even, etc.  The rear spar is secured.  I ran some more angle aluminum and clamped things together.
Here is the right wing skeleton all jigged.

 

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