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Aluminium tube wing construction

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polarbear

New Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
3
Location
England
Greetings all,

I have looked through old posts as I am sure I am not the first person to ask this – but no luck. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction please.

I was wondering how compression struts are attached in a typical 2 spar, ladder type, aluminum tube wing construction? Or put differently, what would be the acceptable way of building such a wing for a single place ultralight?

A wing such as the Airdrome Dream Classic is what I would be referring to. I assume the bolt goes through the spar into some sort of plug that sits inside the compression strut? This seems similar to the construction pictures I saw of a Graham Lee biplane although in these pictures the bolt head was aft of the spar and the thread pointing forward – which looked a little strange.

I have seen Mike Sandlin’s Goat and Bug plans but they have bolts drilled through the spar hang glider style – which is probably fine for the speeds, weights and lack of engine that these aircraft fly at. I assume that this is not the recommended approach for heavier, engined aircraft?

I have previously worked with wood and the use of aluminum was limited to making various fittings and brackets.
My thanks
CJ
 
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