cenpen
Well-Known Member
I know there has been quite a bit of talk about foam core (Rutan style ) wings vs built up composite wings, but here is another question. Would it be advantageous to build wing skin molds top and bottom with a flange around them for vacuum bagging that would serve as a flange to bolt together the molds around a foam core. The foam core would be CNC cut blanks that would be glued together than readied for the install in the skin molds. You would put a slurry on the one side of the foam core, install it into the lower skin mold that has a skin in it that is cured and peel ply pulled off it after it was bagged. You would then slurry the top of the foam core and put the top skin on that is also in the mold yet, and bolt the top and lower skin molds together compressing the foam core a bit. Let cure, remove the bolts and pull the wing as a finished surface foam core wing. Trim the perimeter and do a finish layup on leading edge like you would on a Glasair and finish body work. You could do the same layup schedule that Rutan wings are using with a carbon spar cap if desired with the foam core having a slight indent channel to accommodate the spar caps. The wing would be super slick and smooth with very minimal finish work and would have the same criteria, lay ups, slurry, and foam as a Rutan style... Just done backwards.. It would be realatively the same weight and strength as the mold less wing. The rear of the wing could be done with a rear spar c channel the complete wingspan that is glued into the bottom skin prior to installing the foam. When you pull the finished wing, you could layup a few layers in the back c channel to the skin lips that hang out back past the rear spar by an inch.
Other than the cost of making a pair of really good wing skin molds, does anyone see any flaw in the idea? Let the comments fly.
Other than the cost of making a pair of really good wing skin molds, does anyone see any flaw in the idea? Let the comments fly.
