That sounds like the BS they fed us when I was training to be a tank turret mechanic. They took us out to the firing range, told us the second quietest place was standing behind the turret on top of the tank. When that sucker went off the first thing it did was suck the air out of your lungs, the front of the tank raises off the ground a foot, and then slams back down. What a ride. As we're getting down the drill sergeants whispered, shhh, don't tell the rest of them.
The F16 was like that. Standing next to the tail pipe with the jet strapped down, a full burner run was incredible. It wasn't the noise, it was the vibration. Total confusion, you couldn't tie your boots if you had to... It wasn't just ear defenders, it was ear plugs and ear defenders. Double hearing protection.
First day today and I stripped two damaged sections of wing back to parts, made a complete new section from scratch, talk about in at the deep end! Geeze that 1 series aluminium alloy is hard stuff!!!! About 3-400 rivets to set tomorrow.
The old british duralumin standards are generally very hard, quite brittle, and corrosion prone alloys I guess you are replacing most parts with 2024 Alcad? Mark
I was given sheets of material Mark, I lost track of the exact alloy but I'm sure it was in the 1000 series. Everything is re-made to authentic spec from the 80 year old drawings, not much wiggle room with these restorations. Hell, some of it is Irish Linen as per 80 year old spec! Edit, I'm talking out of my ar$e i think it was 2000 series (copper alloy), wlll check again tomorrow
My very first job after high school, back in the early 80's, was a place that made copies of architectural and engineering drawings, believe it or not, linen copies were still an option at that time, by comparison to the other available options, it was very expensive so very few customers chose linen and when they did, the boss would personally make the copies, I guess he didn't want to have to blame someone else if they didn't come out right.
Sorry Rocco, I was referring to the skin on the fuselage/tail etc. Aluminium frames with a stretched and treated linen covering. Interesting regarding the drawings non the less. Fabric or not they seem to cope with 300mph+ well enough!!
I've seen fabric applied to an airframe a few times, I seem to remember an old AME friend of mine using a fabric called ceconite.
You were right mark, 20 guage 2024 Alclad material. The first 50 made were all fabric skin, the aluminium clad came after that.
How did the riveting go? Were you the driver or the bucker? I had a flight in my bud's '46 Stinson, fabric fuselage but the wings were re-skined in Al.
Riveting tomorrow, panel finished along with new braces/ribs. Stripped back the aerlion of fabric ready for X-ray today only to be told at 12:30 to drop tools for beer/champagne/BBQ then finish early (Late celebration of the previous resto going into full service!). It's a little mad drinking beer next to a live strip with helicopters and sesnas taxying past. Pinch me, I'm in heaven!! That Al sheet only folds across the mill grain, try to bend in the direction it was drawn and it snaps like frozen toffee. As the base alloy is copper based they roller on a few thou of straight al in the drawing process to form a skin that prevents the base metal corroding.
Well they all like me so I've just been given a 2 month rolling contract Chuffed, some photos of the wing and aerlion I've been working on today, phone camera is a bit crap so will take some decent ones next week
I know from experience that's true when hanging a body on a race car but you aircraft guys take it to a whole new level!
SUPER TIGHT! Clecos are the catz azz! And yes, that is a buttload of clecos. I figure that's about 500bucks worth of the suckers.
There are a few types of clecos, the most common, you can think of as a temporary rivet, obviously they don't hold nearly as well as a proper rivet but they are an indispensable tool for properly positioning panels prior to permanently securing them. If you type Cleco into a youtube search, you'll find many examples of them being used.
BTW, here are a couple of the most common types: Spring loaded type, these are the most common type, they're comparatively inexpensive and require a special tool to install and uninstall. Threaded type, they can have a wing nut, as pictured here, or ahex nut, they're considerable more expensive, they hold much tighter, require no special tools, however if you're using hundreds of them like Peedee is, there is a special power tool for installing the ones with hex nuts.
