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Folding wing designs?

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rtfm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Messages
3,900
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Hi guys,
I was wondering if any of you might have some design details, sketches, explanations etc for how to construct a folding wing.

I used to share a hangar with a guy who had a Thorpe T-18, and his wings folded, but the effort to do so was off-putting, and he grumbled and complained every time he had to do so. I'm looking for a simple hinge arrangement, so that the outer third of each wing (ie at the flap/aileron junction) can be unbolted, and flipped up and over to rest on the inner section on the wing. But it has to be easy and quick to fold for a single guy on his own out at the airfield.

In my neck of the woods, there is NO hangar space available. NONE. But when I've asked, I've always been told that if I had a plane with folding wings, which didn't take too much space, they could always find me some corner somewhere. So, while I'm terribly sceptical about folding wings in general, if I could find a really quick and easy implementation, I think it may be worth a try.

I'll be using two pul-pull cables to operate each aileron, so I'm guessing the cables can be left intact when folding? Orion was talking about a while back about using electro-mechanical linkages for the ailerons. That would be even better, because the only contact with the folding wing panels would be some electrical wiring. But I don't know how to do this, so it is still cables at this stage.

Any ideas? Pictures? Drawings?

Regards,
Duncan
 
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