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A New style of rib construction
I promised some pictures of what I was working on. A completely new way of making U/L ribs. I believe at least not done this way before.
I have been slow because of the extensive tooling.
What I have here is a stabilator and the vertical fin plus the ruder foam cores. Still yet to fab its rib channels.[special bender required] I also have no leading edge material its on order.
Laid out on the floor just to express the general idea.
The stabilator is a lift generating airfoil with a center bearing it is actually 2 pieces . Will be mounted mid way up the fin
The fin ribs will have porting done to allow for the control rod .
Looking at this you will assume its all heavy. you are deceiving yourselves if you think so the largest of the ribs having a 36 inch chord weighs 4 oz.the spar tubes are .035 1.75" and the fin is .035 X 2" ruder spar is .035 X 1.75
What you see is foam encapsulated by a full perimeter .035 channel splayed then compressed over the foam. each rib becomes complimented by combined materials character . The rib becomes like a stress skin panel in the vertical. Light and more structural than the usual U/L . I use them to reduce structure and end up light typically a single spar tube ,LE an TE.
I have very pleasing numbers so far.The V-tail when weighed all components was every bit of 10# I expect to be very near the same. with far more control surface.Attachment 1217Attachment 1218Attachment 1219