Hi KR heads As some of you know, I am working on a full retract tricycle gear on my rendition of a KR2S. Tonight I went to look at some wood for the forward outer spars at a friend of mine who is a very respected person in the experimental world over here. I was discussing the retract system with him and he brought up a point that I had not considdered at all. As my retract system requires that the bottom wing skin of the stubwings be split basically from root to outboard end in order for the gear to retract into the wing. This means that the bottom skin will no linger be continuous between the spars.
My question is: What, if any, tortional loads does the skin carry under normal conditions due to forces applied by ailerons, etc. and what effect will the splitting of the skin in order to accomodate the gear have on wing strength. As a bit of background, my gear will consist of a 1.5" 4130 tube between the spars supported each end by a bearing mounted in a piece of aluminuim that bolts onto the spars by picking up the W.A.F bolts. To this tube will be another 1.5" tube welded at 90* to it forming the gear leg. At the bottom of this will be a trailing link arrangement with a damper. The tube between the spars will be mounted almost at the outboard end of the stubwings and the gear will retract towards the fuselage just clearing it to sit completely inside the wing. Any thoughts from those in the know will be greatly appreciated. Thank you next day: On a less serious note, I was fortunate enough to have had the "WHISPER" experience today. After work I was invited to go on a "test" flight for about half an hour down the coast here. This plane is remarkable. I was amased when Russell (the designer,builder &pilot) let go of the stick immediately as the tail came off the groung and the plane just took off and flew straight ahead in a steady climb all by itself! Takeoff roll was less than 80metres with a 13 knot headwind! Deploying the spoilers on final brings the glide slope from 28:1 down to 8:1, feels like the seat has fallen out of the bottom of the plane. For more info see my signature line. Dene Collett KR2S-RT builder Port Elizabeth South Africa mailto: dene.coll...@telkomsa.net P.S: checkout www.whisperaircraft.com
