Elegant from the assembly point of view but it left a surface
discontinuity/air leak at a critical point on the airfoil that was
guaranteed to trip the flow to turbulent. It also provided a path for water
to get inside the wing possibly causing corrosion. The steel piano wire in
contact with the aluminum didn't help with that either.

That said, it's a potentially good idea that could use some updating.

Bill Daniels

"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in message
...
In the latest Air & Space magazine is a surprisingly technical article on
the spar problems on the T-34 Mentors. It shows how Mentor wings (and I
presume Bonanza and many other Beech wings) are assembled. Instead of
being
riveted completely together they are in three main pieces. (1) A main
spar
with many of the ribs attached, (2) a leading edge that apparently slips
over the fronts of these ribs, and (3) the trailing edge that includes the
secondary spar, flaps, ailerons, etc. These are all held together with
four
"piano hinges" two at the top and two at the bottom. To separate the
pieces
you simply pull the "hinge pins" (stainless steel wires running the length
of the wings) out and the leading and trailing edge pieces pull away from
the spar, exposing most of the inside of the wings. This makes it easy to
get inside the wing for complete inspection of the spar and everything
else.
I'd never appreciated this design feature, but it makes a lot of sense.
Just some elegant engineering that most of us engineers and would-be
engineers can appreciate.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America