wrote:
I'm studying the Gee Bee series of planes and I have a question that
may be obvious to you, but not me. I know that flying wires are
supposed to be dual for safety purposes. The flying wires on the
outboard part of the wing ( Gee Bee R2 and Z models ) are dual, OK. I
am assuming that the load of these wires goes through the landing gear
strut and back up to the fuselage where it is anchored and therefore
is where the actual load is transferred from. But the wire from the
inboard part of the landing gear strut to the fuselage is only a
single wire. Am I missing something?

Gee Bee wing bracing is very similar to that of Fly Babies.

First, the wires themselves attach to the wing spars. If the wing spar
isn't co-incident with the normal center of pressure, putting ONE set of
wires on either spar will cause the wing panel to twist under load. A
bracing wire on the aft spar is lighter than building the wing so stiff
it doesn't twist.

The center-section bracing wires attach to the opposite side of the
flying wire attachment point on the gear structure. There's no need for
a pair of wires, since there's no torque imparted. If the cross-braces
couldn't attach to the gear structure there, they WOULD need two sets.

Having two separate flying wires also allows them to adjust each wing's
angle of incidence individually. If the plane flies right-wing heavy,
they can tighten the rear flying wire and add a bit of twist to the wing
to make it produce a tad more lift.

Ron Wanttaja