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Re: Corsair mainspar

Posted by jeff wright on Tue Jul 30, 2002 10:40:39 AM

In reply top Corsair mainspar posted by Cees on Tue Jul 30, 2002 04:21:53 AM

: Hi all,
:
: OK you all are on the right track.. the spar is a box spar with reinforcement stiffeners that are spot welded on. The front and back plates are no big deal other thatn you waist a lot of material making them. The top and bottom cap is where the problems start. It is a approx 17 foot piece of 3/8 inch plate that is tappered , machined , and rolled as well as heat treated. First problem. Find a 17 foot chunk of 2024 SO 3/8 inch plate.. last i checked this might be avail thru Boeing if you had a connection. (I did at the time) second set up for the machine work , not really har but very labor intensive. third , machine the rolleres for the tappering and rolling process (assuming you have a roller machine big enough to handle it.. fourth, find and pay for the oven big enough for the 17 foot chunck of alum and heat treat to full hard (T-6 hardness).. Ok now you have the top and bottom caps now you can start to build up the spar.. Don't mess it up or you get to start all over again. I was looking at a project with a bad spar and was quoted by Tom R a starting price for the spar only of 150K. that assumed i sent him the center section completly dissasembled (except for rivits) he put it in a jig and removed the old spar made the new one and reinstalled in the center section. Then you get to start in on the restoration of the rest of the center section 3 to 5 thousand hours of labor.. Oh did i say you first had to buy a project? as you can see the cost makes the project not economical. Now if you have more money than sence then anything is possible...

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