In article ,
says...

Still, the use of
Graphlite rods instead of carbon fibre rovings, and externally built
spars which are then wrapped in fibreglass cloth and vacuum-bagged is
a method which produces stronger, more durable and longer lasting
wings. As the current fleet of German gliders gets older I'll wager
there will be a lot of speed limiting directives because the "margin
of error" isn't what they thought it would be.
What kind of spar construction methods do the SparrowHawk, Apis and
Russia gliders use?

I just finished speaking to Greg Cole, the designer of the
SparrowHawk, and he told me it's spar is completely laid up in a mold,
then oven cured (like the rest of the glider). An advantage of this
method, he said, it that even if there are spar to wing skin voids in
the final wing assembly, the strength is very little affected, as the
spar has all of it's strength.

--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)