Thursday, June 19, 2008

KR2S Wing Shaping

This series of photos shows how the wing profile is built. These photos and the wonderful workmanship courtesy of the former owner.

This first photo shows the spars attached and aligned and the 2" foam ribs have been glued into place.

These ribs are then sanded to profile with a long straight sanding board against a plywood profile at the wingtip and another at the root. Due to the wing's taper these are different sizes.


This shot clearly shows the washout that is built into these wings.


These ribs are sanded a further 3/4" below the profile to allow for a sheet of 1" foam to be placed between the spars from root to tip. The photo below shows the lower panel being glued but the top is similar. Aft of the spar is filled in similar fashion, forward of the spar larger blocks of foam are glued into place.
The whole assembly is then sanded to shape.

And sanded some more...

Until eventually you finish up with a surface like this. Ain't she a beauty?

Another angle of the finished surface.

And another ...

The instruction manual has the builder lay 2 layers of BID on the bias on this top surface at this stage. I have no photos of this but this is what it looks like once finished.

Next the whole fuselage and wing assembly is flipped over upside down, re-levelled and the whole process is repeated. View of the ribs from underneath. At this stage you can see the wing tanks have been put in place. I will do a separate post on the tanks.
Glue on more foam...
Sand to profile and cover with glass.
In this last shot you can just see the diagonal line where the edges of the glass overlap after being laid on the bias. You can also see some conduit for wing tip lights etc.

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