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The big advantage of that method is that the sandwich skins are more
stable, and less prone to mirroring the spar after aging. One of the disadvantages is that the spar is less stiff than it would be if it went from outer skin to outer skin, and didn't have its depth reduced by the sandwich foam. I don't think this is a disadvantage, but is instead an advantage, because the wing isn't so stiff, and the pilot enjoys a smoother ride in turbulence. The disadvantage is it likely takes more material, so the wing is a bit heavier and more expensive. ************************************************** ******************************** I don't know Eric, that flexibility and smoother ride might be your upper spar cap lifting off of the shear web. There is no law which says the wing has to actually snap. It could be more benign; one wing a little more flexible than the other or air brakes popping open during high speed runs in turbulence. Each 4g pop might add another ..010" to the delamination between those two air bubbles in the bonding paste. The stiffness, or lack thereof, can still be designed into the wing by varying the amount of carbon fibre rovings in the spar cap, or Graphlite rods in the case of the Genesis 2 and LAK 17. I believe the LAK 17 wing has the externally made spar bonded to the outer skin of the wing because the designers wanted an extremely thin profile. The spar is only 3 1/2 inches deep at the wing root of the LAK 17; bonding it to the outer skin of the wing allows the wing to be extremely thin. Unfortunately, some of the earlier 17's had that mirroring and the factory paid to have the wings re-profiled. I believe that happened to some of the earlier ASW 28 gliders, too. 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? |
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