AviationBanter - View Single Post - XF4F-2

**Waldo Pepper** · January 23rd 08, 08:17 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:51:50 GMT, wrote:

Nice shot. Never before seen the strange "rubber bands" around the wings.

Brian

The plane is Bureau number 0383. As originally built it did not have
these (for lack of a better term) 'wing fences'

The plane was involved in a accident and damages heavily, but rebuilt.
When the plane was rebuilt they (along with some other changes) were
implemented. On other pictures that show the wing from above it is
clear that they occur at the portion of the wing where the aileron and
wing proper meet. This is also the location of the flap and wing
intersection. Since on straight wing planes "they control the airflow
in the flap area ... (and)...they give better slow speed handling and
stall characteristics. (Desirable if not vital for a carrier based
plane). It seems likely that they were intended to act as wing fences.

When it went into production the wingtip was changed to a square tip,
and a more powerful engine fitted. So I suspect the refinement was not
needed due to these changes.

Waldo.