ive just got to respond to this.

1. the failures of RV-3 wings were fixed years and years ago, from what ive
been told it was not a design problem but a problem with the way people were
assembling the wing. Van redesigned it anyway, for added strength.
2. this my cousin knows someones brother that said---- crap, don't cut it.
Talk to Van. he will tell you exactly what you want to know. his web site
has all the details of the RV-8 wing separation and the testing that was
done after to re-prove the design.
3. check the FAA data base yourself, I have and there has NOT been one
in-flight failure of a wing on a RV-4.
4. with over 3000 planes flying and several thousand more in construction,
stating that the RV line has weak wings, is pure horsesh--.

yes , I am biased, but I will put my RV-4 up against anything out there. Van
is one of the most honest and talented designers out there and his success
more than proves his designs.

R. Burns
RV-4 N82RB


0 You know once I went through the FAA's exhibition hanger in Lakeland,
and the inspector was handing out accident info on homebuilts, and the
one plane that stood out among the rest in the list was the RV-3. It
had numerous wing spar failures, resulting in accidents. So I've
always felt the entire RV line has weak wings, since they are pretty
much similar in design. And there was an RV accident once involving
wing failure, and a fellow homebuilder I was talking to on the flight
line in Lakeland said he asked Van about that accident's cause, and
his reply was "I guess we'll never know". And that fellow told me "If
I were the designer of that line I'd sure as hell want to find out!"
He definitely didn't care for Van's answer to his question.
I guess aluminum just can't approach the strength in some of these
I-beam type of spars you see in the composite ships.