So do Boeing 787's need wing sand, wax, buff, reprofile, refinish?

I wonder if 747 pilots mumble about "glassholes" when the 787 pilots
walk by.

wrote:

I wonder if 747 pilots mumble about "glassholes" when the 787 pilots
walk by.


Depends on how the last merger skewed the seniority list, again.


Jack

Actually, the 787 is built from basically the same material as the
SparrowHawk, so it is not likely to have much problem with that kind
of thing. A little bit different resin in the prepreg and it is laid
out by machine, but the fibers are exactly the same. Not likely to be
many bumps as there are many co-cured parts and the material is very
stable. 6 year old SparrowHawk number 1 is still very smooth.

Painted - gelcoat would turn brown in the oven!

Pretty much all of the other gliders are built with rather old
technology when it comes to resins and tooling. No one who wants
really accurate, repeatable parts does assembly in the molds or uses
wet lay-up. There are good reasons other gliders are built the way
they are. Tooling is very expensive. There has to be the right
number built to pay off the tooling. With the number of
Discus' (Discii?) or LS4's built, it would have probably been cheaper
in prepreg - assuming of course, that you were starting production
sometime since 1995. Typically, it is hard to make that bet in the
world of glider manufacturing.


On Jul 11, 9:55 pm, Stewart Kissel
wrote:
I am intrigued by the construction of the Dreamliner...carbon
fiber makes it's way to commercial aircraft. This
got me wondering about the construction techniques
of glider wings vs how Boeing does it. Will the 787
have spar bumps after a few years? Are the wings pulled
out of molds? Do they buy gelcoat from the same German
manufacturer as SH or Schleicher? Or are they painted
in poly? Any Boeing types out there with some insights?

wrote:
Actually, the 787 is built from basically the same material as the
SparrowHawk, so it is not likely to have much problem with that kind
of thing. A little bit different resin in the prepreg and it is laid
out by machine, but the fibers are exactly the same.

All made of fabric. That has always been fascinating to me about our gliders
is that they are just thin shells flyin' around.
While I was sitting on the ground once waiting for our tow-plane, I got into
a discussion with another of our tow-pilots about glass fibre, resins, etc.
and he reminded me of something I hadn't thought of before.
"You know", he said "Basically you're just sitting in a big, crusty rag..."

(9_6)

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PIKs were built in an autoclave, though I'm not sure they were done in
prepreg. My 31-year-old sailplane still doesn't have a spar bump...
unfortunately, the molds were't terribly stable...

Jack

Can you imagine being in a gaggle of these? ;-)

- John

ContestID67 wrote:
Can you imagine being in a gaggle of these? ;-)

- John
I have...frequently.

It's called "Class B"

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