Build a 490 Sq Inch Lanzo Airborn

By Tandy Walker Arlington, Texas

This morning I added the two temporary inclined tip ribs.  Next, one by one I added the two top 3/32" X 3/16" balsa forward spars, the 3/16" spruce top spar, and the 1/4" square balsa L.E., being very careful to keep each rib vertical using one of the small steel block squares.

Picture 1  This shows the center panel lay up from the front.  One thing is for sure, the accuracy with which the various spars fit into their notches of the laser cut ribs insures that the wing lay up is strong and true.  Notice that the wide aluminum straight edge still remains against the rear edge of the T.E. during the L.E. and three top spar installations to keep the center panel straight  spanwise.
 


The wing will now be remove from the work table and the remaining two bottom spars will be added.

I finally finished the structure of the wing's center panel today.  Pictures are as follow:
Picture 1  This shows the 1/16" vertical shear webs between each wing rib.  Notice the holes in the center of each web to vent the forward compartments to the aft compartments.  With the two holes in each wing rib, venting is provided between every compartment in the wing.

Picture 4 & 5  These two pictures show the wing center panel from the bottom.   The temporary tip ribs are used only to provide a common inclined plane to sand all spars, L.E., and T.E.  These two tip ribs will be removed at the time the wing tip panels are added.


Now, the next step is to start building the two wing tip panels....................Tandy

 

Picture 2  This shows the center panel lay up from the right end.  Observe the tip rib inclination jig on the end.  In this view, the jig is weighted face down with a small steel block square and was constantly used to check the angle of the tip rib as each spar was added.

Picture 2 & 3  These two pictures show the wing center panel from the top.  In addition to the notched T.E., additional reinforcement was provided to stabilize the rib junctures with 1/16" balsa sheet gussets on one side of the rib only.  The center five ribs are recessed top and bottom for the 1/16" balsa sheeting, which result in a rather wide sheeted center section in the middle of the wing. 

Today, I have been working on the right wing tip panel.  I have not figured out how to integrate the wing tip into the spar structure of the panel yet.  The picture below shows the initial lay up of the structure.  The TE and two wing tip pieces were glued together first.  Then the master alignment to correctly position the ribs was done using the TE with tip and the bottom 3/16" square spar (which was pinned down on the plan but not glued to the bottom of the ribs). The top 3/16" spar was glued into the rib notches, except for two outer tip ribs and the wing tip piece itself.  The 1/4" square LE was notched and glued in, except it is not yet glued to the forward wing tip piece.  I want remove the structure and glue in the bottom 3/16" square spar first.  Then I can work out the details of how to integrate the wing tip into the spar structure of the panel.

 

 

 

   
   

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