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Beefing up spar to increase gross weight? (wood structure)

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Brohawk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
87
I have acquired a set of plans for a Druine D5 Turbi. It looks like it would be a nice, economical puttering around airplane. I’ve been thinking about what I could do to bump the gross weight limit up. I’m not an engineer, nor do I play one in the movies, but I figure the place to start is the wing spars. Below are some specs and what I’m looking at doing.

Wing length (from wing root): 4000mm (157.48 inches)

Front spar:
- Upper member of spar: 5 laminations of 60X14 spruce, tapered down to 60X8 at 2100mm (82.7 inches) from wing root
Lower member of spar: 4 laminations of 60X14 spruce, tapered down to 60X9 at 2300mm (90.55 inches) from wing root

Modification: Carry the taper out to 3500mm (137.8) from the wing root. I think the added strength would be worth the relatively small increase in airframe weight.

The rear spar would receive similar treatment.

What do you guys think?
 

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