I've been reviewing some of my source materials with an eye to getting back to work on my design project. I've been looking at hand-layup wing construction examples. I was reviewing the Quickie Aircraft Q1 and Q2 construction manuals and came across something that makes no sense to me, and that means I'm probably missing something.
The manuals for both aircraft clearly show (both in drawing and description) the spar cap plies being laid up on the outside of the wing skins. That is to say, going from the inside of the wing to the outside, you'd have this order of materials:
Was the method used in the Qx aircraft chosen to facilitate spar cap quality inspection during construction? Some structural reason I'm unfamiliar with? Is it just weird and worked anyway, despite being "weird"?
What am I missing?
The manuals for both aircraft clearly show (both in drawing and description) the spar cap plies being laid up on the outside of the wing skins. That is to say, going from the inside of the wing to the outside, you'd have this order of materials:
- Innermost: Foam Core
- Wing skins are then laid up on this (2 UNI plies at 45° bias to the leading edge, 90° bias to each other).
- Outermost: Spar plies (1-6 UNI plies, depending on spanwise location)
Was the method used in the Qx aircraft chosen to facilitate spar cap quality inspection during construction? Some structural reason I'm unfamiliar with? Is it just weird and worked anyway, despite being "weird"?
What am I missing?
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