Dean & Netters: By cutting a hole in the lower skin, you've basicly removed the Load Path for the torsional load to sheer out through the lower wing skin. The bigger the hole, more of the load path is removed. Some of the airload will be reintroduced by way of the the gear door or fairing, but you still must replace the missing material / load path by some other means.
Usually a doubler framed out with intercostals is the perferred method of doing this. Think of the stub wing as a torque box, with the spars and skins sharing the load. Try this little experiment: Take a cereal box with the ends taped shut. Hold the box with the long side horizontally and try to twist the box out of shape. Note how much "force" is required to deflect and twist the box out of shape. Now cut a hole (leave like an inch perimeter with your hole) in the bottom horizontal face, and try your experiment over. See how little force is required to twist the box out of shape now? Now add some "ribs" to attach to the upper "skin" and to the front and back of the box. Re-try your experiment yet one last time. You'll notice that it is much more difficult to twist the box out of shape again. >From this little experiment we learned that by adding some ribs we can >substantially increase the stiffeness of the wing torque box, which is what >you should try to incorporate into your modification. add some ribs and >doublers. just my thoughts...Hope this helps Scott "Dene Collett (SA)" <dene.coll...@telkomsa.net> wrote: 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. Scott Cable KR-2S # 735 Wright City, MO s2cab...@yahoo.com --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
