As I said before, Rex has been making great progress on the wings with the first of the bottom spars now under construction. These are made up of two "I' beams connected top and bottom by sheet ply making a very strong single spar. You can just see what I mean in the bottom of the photo. We won't be adopting the original Nieuport idea of having the ability to vary the lower wings' incidence -ours are going to be rock solid! The idea might have seemed to be OK at the time but in practice it was never used and may have contributed to a few wing failures. Hence the decision.
I was asked to give a presentation to the local branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society about the four Nieuports based at Omaka -our two and also the two on display in the AHC. This was followed up by some photos of early attempts at how to teach pilots and gunners to shoot down enemy aircraft. The first was pretty crude but then they got more sophisticated as the months went along. Went down pretty well with lots of questions afterwards.
I've also started on the pieces of leather which hold the front top cowling down. Lots of holes and lots of boot lace hooks! Rex looks reasonably impressed.....
Not far now before we get into fabric covering -another massive learning curve coming up! And then there is the engine and all its accoutrements to come......
No comments:
Post a Comment