Floats, Tricycle Gear, Turtledeck, Builder tips

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Something for everyone...

One sneek picture of an amphibious float is somewhere below...

Pics of the Sky Blue plane with a turtledeck on it, builder tips for those builders seeking help, photos of a tricycle gear fuselage under construction, photos of a primed fuselage, carbon fiber spars, all for the ultralight Belite Aircraft.

By the way, my heart goes out to designers of amphibious floats.  Hardest design project, ever.

Carbon fiber spar with jury strut fitting.  Wrapped with carbon fiber rope and epoxied.

Sky Blue Ultralight Belite with turtledeck.

Another view of the sky blue ultralight Belite Aircraft.

Blurry picture of lift strut fitting, with carbon fiber rope and epoxy.

Messy job on the glue, but aluminum doubler (2.75" OD) over carbon fiber spar.  Tripler on inside root.

New design Belite door.  Coolest ultralight aircraft door, ever.

CNC cut frame on inside of door frame.  Note two pins for locking door closed.

We added corner pocket windows to this Belite.  Edge of  polycarbonate door panel is visible.

This side of the plane has a polycarbonate window installed.  Easily removable 'cuz we used Nutserts.

Swing the door up.  Someone really ought to add a gas lift strut.

Door hinge installed on top of door.

Picture of amphibious float.  How'd this photo slip in here?

Really bad photo showing one way to overlap fit trailing edge material together.

Another way to fit trailing edge together.  Works with wood ribs if you use a left and right gusset.

Tricycle gear airplane under construction.

Finishing tail of tricycle gear airplane.

Underside of rear deck, showing structure. 

Gusset detail on tricycle gear airplane. 

More gussets.

This gusset is doubled, as gear hinge will be bolted here.

And here as well.  Doubled.

Another view of the bottom of the rear deck.

View of the front.  Nose gear not yet installed.

Detail of front of fuselage.

Detail of front of fuselage.

Some aluminum primer, some paint.  This bird nearly ready to cover.

Bill of Materials for an Ultralight Aircraft carbon fiber wing kit

If you are looking to build a FAR Part 103 legal ultalight aircraft, such are Belite 254, you will want to know what comes in the kit.  This particular post covers the wing kit, which is the starting point for most projects.  A photo is at the bottom of this post.

Here's an itemized list of what you get:

a) 4 Carbon Fiber wing spars.  The load carrying part of the wing.

b) 10 Aluminum Ribs.  5 used on each wing.  They slip over the spars and are glued in place.  The glue acts as a corrosion barrier in the area of the glue joint. 

c) 4 Birch CNC cut wooden ribs (used as end cap ribs on wing).  These work better than aluminum for end caps, due to the ease of fabric attachment.  They should be epoxied or stained, so they will last a long time.

d) 0.75" x 0.035" 6061-T6 aluminum tubing, used as sail/anti-sail braces.  You cut them to length and crimp the ends of them in a vise (using blocks of wood).

e) 2 push-pull cables, low friction.  They go to the flaperons and thread out the wing, for routing to the aircraft controls.  (Flaperons are not included.)

f) 4 machined CNC 6061-T6 aluminum strut attachment fittings, for attachment to carbon fiber tubing.  They are connected to the carbon fiber spars using carbon fiber sleeves.  A corrosion barrier of flexible epoxy is used to bond the aluminum to the carbon fiber.  We do this for you!  (NOTE:  aluminum spars DO NOT use these strut attachment fittings, they use a different strut attachment methodology, not pictured)

g) 10 10" x 0.5" .025 6061-T6 aluminum straps, used for attaching ribs to front spar.  Two rivets attach to the bottom of the rib, the strap rolls around the front of the spar, then two rivets on the top of the rib.

h) 6 channel 6061-T6 right angle aluminum, for flaperon atachment.  These bolt to the ribs, and also accept the flaperons, when you install them later.

i) 36 false ribs, constructed of CNC cut plywood.  These slip through the 'false rib spar', which is 0.5" aluminum tubing.  They are then glued in place.

j) 4 root spar doublers (2.75" x 0.125 wall x 1.50" length).  These slip over the root of each tube, and are epoxied and riveted in place.

k) Plastic pitot tubing line, runs from pitot tube to your airspeed indicator.

l) Bent aluminum pitot tube  (straight pitot tube also available).

m) left and right machined CNC 6061-T6 flaperon dropper brackets.  They bolt to a rib.

n) 5 various aluminum trim pieces (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around flaperon cable exit points, etc.

o) 4 CNC cut 6061-T6 jury strut attachment fittings.

p) 6 0.75" square x 0.035 6061T6 hard point attachment tubes (for sail/anti-sail attachment).  These rivet to the aluminum ribs, and bolt to the sail / anti-sail tubes.

q) 6 trim pieces for flaperon right angle trim (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around the right angle pieces.

r) 24+ feet of prebent trailing edge aluminum.  These rivet to each rib.

s) 24 feet of 0.50" x 0.035" 6061T6 aluminum tubing, for false rib spars.  These slip through all the ribs and false ribs.

t) Blue print for wing.  Accurate measurements for the entire wing.

u) 5 bags of hardware, with all rivets, AN nuts, bolts & washers.

This is EVERYTHING you need to build two wings, with the exception of glue, fabric and tools.

WING KIT with aluminum spars --- $1430.
WING KIT with Carbon Fiber spars --- $3630.

Crating on a wing kit is $150.

Truck delivery to your location is by quotation.  Let us know where you are and we'll get a quote to you right away!

Here's another photo of that wing kit:

!

Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 1

Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 1

A completed wing.  It weighs 20 pounds. 

Last Updated December 13, 2010

I have finished my online edits to this revised wing assembly manual.  Further edits are contained within the latest version of the builder's manual, included with each kit.  No further online edits are planned at this time.

Updated December 7, 2010
Updated December 4, 2010
Updated December 2, 2010
Updated November 30, 2010
Updated November 28, 2010


0.  INTRODUCTION

When you are done with these wings, you will have state of the art ultralight aircraft wings utilizing carbon fiber and aluminum.  They will work well with our FAR Part 103 Belite Aircraft!  The weight of the left wing (without flaperon or covering, but including the flaperon control cable and pitot tube/tubing) is slightly less than 20 pounds (9.1KG) when complete.  The weight of the right wing is 19 pounds (8.6KG).

Construction is straightforward, requiring only the ability to accurately place and glue parts together, with minimal riveting and absolutely no welding.

If you are building with aluminum spars (instead of carbon fiber) and wooden ribs (instead of aluminum ribs), you will only need to make slight modifications to the build instructions to complete your wings.


1.  VERIFY CONTENTS, YOUR WORKSPACE, AND YOUR TOOLS.  

First of all, check your materials.  For each wing, you should have the following:

a) QTY 2 Carbon Fiber spars, with pre-attached CNC Machined lift strut hard points
b) QTY 5 Aluminum ribs
c) QTY 2 Birch Ply ribs, CNC machined from 1/2 inch Birch plywood (for root and tip caps)
d) Aluminum Tubing - 6 inch (length) used for doubler for spar roots
e) Aluminum Tubing - 1.5 inch (length) tripler used for spar roots
f)  Aluminum Tubing - 0.5 inch OD x 0.035 wall thickness, 6061T6, used for false rib spar and sail/anti sail braces.  A total of 5 tube lengths of varying lengths are needed for sail/anti-sail tubes.  12' is needed for false rib spar.
g) Aluminum Tubing - 0.625 OD square x 0.035 wall thickness used for rib stiffeners and sail/anti-sail hard points
h)  Aluminum Sheet - 0.025 thickness used for front spar strap, you will cut to 10" by 0.5" straps.
i) pitot tube - 1/4 inch aluminum tubing, prebent to shape.
j) plastic tubing for pitot tube
k) QTY 2 machined jury strut attachment fittings
l) preformed trailing edge aluminum, 12' per wing
m) LEFT and RIGHT CNC machined flaperon control cable dropper
n) one 3/16" rivet for trailing edge attachment to wooden root rib
o) 1/8" rivets for rib strips and for trailing edge attachment
p) 1/8" rivets for spar doubler/tripler
q) Carbon Fiber rope for securing jury struts
r) cotter keys
s) wing blueprint


You will need the following materials to finish your wing kit:

a) Glue (3M 2216) is NOT SUPPLIED.
b) Zinc Phosphate primer is NOT SUPPLIED.
c) Epoxy (West Systems or equivalent) is NOT SUPPLIED.
d) Acetone for glue cleanup is NOT SUPPLIED.
e) Sandpaper / Scotchbrite is NOT SUPPLIED.

Also note that flaperons and flaperon cables are NOT SUPPLIED with this kit.  You will need to order them separately.  (Or hopefully, you bought a complete kit.)

Also verify that you have a flat, absolutely flat workspace for building the wings.  The workspace needs to have easy access to a complete wing assembly, which has dimensions of about 12 feet by 4 feet.  You'll also need all of the usual tools (aviation snips, sandpaper, rivet squeezer, mixing trays, small paintbrushes...).  Having a large quantity of right angle squares and small clamps is essential for building a square wing.

DO NOT START WING ASSEMBLY UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS AND UNDERSTAND THEM.


2.  Spar Assembly.

Using very light sandpaper, clean and rough up six inches of the root portion of each carbon fiber spar, in preparation to glue on the 6 inch aluminum doubler.  Ensure that the doubler will fit over the spar.  This is what it will look like after the doubler and the tripler and the root rib are glued together, but don't glue anything yet:

Doubler, Tripler, Rib and root rib, along with some sloppy glue.  Don't glue it yet!

3.  Wood Rib Preparation.

Paint each of the two end cap wood ribs with a very light coat of epoxy.  This will ensure decades of life.  Lightly sand as necessary to remove excess epoxy and for better appearance.

Root Rib, in place.  It has been coated with a layer of clear epoxy.

4.  Aluminum rib strap preparation.

Cut 5 strips of 0.025 aluminum to dimensions of 1/2 inch x 10 inches for each wing.  These will be used to attach the front of the aluminum ribs to the leading edge spar.  A total of 5 straps are needed for each wing.  Clean and rough up using Scotchbrite, then spray coat with Zinc Phosphate primer.