Monday, July 6, 2009

Wings come together


Miss D. and I have been making progress on putting together the wings for her Taylorcraft. It's a surprisingly complex piece of work, with spars, ribs, spacers, braces, struts, ailerons and a host of bits and pieces contributing to the whole. There's a photograph of the wing-in-progress on Miss D.'s blog.

To make life more interesting, of course, Miss D. put all the small parts into plastic bags when disassembling the original wings. This means that the parts we need to rebild them are available, provided we can find the necessary bag! Some bags appear to have developed a persecution complex and are stubbornly hiding from us. Very awkward when one needs them to get further! Meanwhile, her plane waits for its wings. Here's a picture of it at the airfield, looking rather naked without them!




It's fascinating to work on a piece of history like this aircraft. It was in service when the US was catapulted into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Its log book records training activities that morning, followed by a prolonged grounding (along with most other commercial and private aviation). For the rest of the war it was used to train army liaison pilots, and after the war reverted to its civilian function. The original wings served for well over 60 years before deteriorating to the point where new spars were required - quite a record by anyone's standards!

Peter

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

Hope the pieces come together and y'all get her back in the air!

Wayne Conrad said...

Even wingless it's pretty, and a good color.

Pawpaw said...

I hope the old bird can fly free again.

Referring to the aircraft, of course.

Stranger said...

Very familiar! My first flight was in one almost identical in 1945.

I hope the original web belt with a grommeted hole will be replaced with a not so authentic belt. Steep banks and inverted flight (shudder, she was not rated for it) were not at all comfortable with the original.

Stranger

On a Wing and a Whim said...

Stranger,

If money were not a consideration (quit laughing) I'd get an inertial reel harness in a heartbeat. They're really popular up here as they're a great leap forward on safety.

Til then, I'll have to (gasp, shudder) be careful and use common sense. Fortunately, unlike money, common sense doesn't run out.

Pawpaw,

Thanks for the clarification. :-)

Wayne,
Thanks! I want a different color, but will probably stick to the high visibility of yellow.

Old NFO,

Working on it! Fast as practicable!