Wing Joiners

[Terry S]

I want to join some wings on a medium sized power plane. Has anyone got any good ways to join the wings so they can be removed as 2 units. Is there a good shop in the UK that sells these ? When I go to a model shop they just tell me to find some carbon tubes that fit but the ones that fit have gone !

Terry
UK

[Ollie]

Assuming a mid wing location and a built up wing structure, a tempered aluminum alloy tube about 60 to 75% of the maximum thickness of the airfoil makes a good wing joiner when extended through the fuselage sides and at least 3 or 4 inches into each wing. The bending loads are transfered from the joiner tube to the wing spars by plywood ribs at the wing roots and near the ends of the joiner tubes. These ply ribs can be equipped with receiver tubes to guide the joiner tube when the wings are assembled to the fuselage. The receiver tubes do not carry structural loads so they can be rolled to fit the aluminum tube from any convenient material such as 0.6 mm birch ply, paper, glass cloth in epoxy, etc. The ply ribs can be made from 1.5 mm birch plywood or 3 mm poplar plywood. The tempered alloy aluminum tubing is used in full scale aircraft and should be available from suppliers to home builders of full scale aircraft. An indexing pin and tube are necessary to fix the wing incidence.

There are other possibilities depending on where the wing is mounted to the fuselage and the type of wing structure.

[Terry S]

Thanks Ollie
Ive not come accross that method before, normally Im told to get tubes that fit. It seems odd to me that you can get anything you dream of for your plane but off the shelf wing joiners are rare.
You got me thinking different, I was trying to work out how to slide the wings over the joiner but your way of sliding the joiner in the fus is easier.

Thanks Terry
UK

[Ollie]

The joiner can be glued into one wing and slide through plywood reinforced holes in the fuselage into guide tubes between the ply ribs in the other wing. Therefore, at least one wing has to be equipped with a guide tube or the joiner will have difficulty aligning with the hole in the ply rib interior to the wing. The holes and guide tubes have to be snug sliding fits to the joiner or the wings will wobble and even change incidence.