Sonex* Aft Fuselage 2


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Left side. 10/9/99

Left side (bottom up). 10/9/99

After experimenting with setting up the cross members on both sides at once, I decided that reasonable squareness would be obtained by drilling cross members for one side first, then clamping both sides together. 10/10/99

I would not recommend building the fuselage box as shown here. More reliable precision is had from building with the 2 sides upright on the table, with the cross members on the surface of the table. Someone else even went so far as to layout the framing on the table surface (draw it in); attach blocks to the table surface to obtain squareness across the box (left side to right side), and use carpenter's squares to obtain squareness top to bottom. 4/17/00

Drilling cross members. 10/10/99

Tail box. 10/10/99

Tail box. 10/10/99

Cross members set up. 10/10/99

Bottom skin plate. The bottom skin somehow I measured wrong. It was 1 5/16" too short. I did not exactly transpose the centerline length dimension down the diagonal side. Since the rivet pattern is measured from the back forward along the last bay, I spliced in an additional section there. I doubled the number of rivets along the bottom cross member. Will lap the aft plate between the longerons & bottom skin (the logical overlap considering airflow direction). 10/10/99

* This is not a complete splice repair. A backing plate (another layer of sheet stock), and a TBD number of rivets will be added on either side of the splice to ensure that shear strength lost at the splice will be regained. 4/17/00

Ropes apply tension for squaring the sides against one another in the fore-aft direction. Bottom is up. 10/10/99

Bottom skin drilled. There are 224 clecoes on the assembly right now. Doesn't look like it. At this point, I have 119 3/32" clecoes in + 105 1/8's in. I know this because I had 120 3/32's and bent one, and I have 120 1/8's but 15 are stuck in various control surfaces. I will probably get more clecoes to have something like 200 in each of these sizes. I was adjusting the build order to keep the clecoes circulating - more clecoes give more options in build order. 10/10/99

Aft fuselage box. Upper box beam not drilled. 10/10/99

Aft fuselage box. Yes, I ended up with a not-so-perfect looking sheet on the right side. I will have to polish that out. You can see a small polished square near the forward edge of the sheet ~6" down from the top. 10/10/99

Test fit of turtledeck formers. Also drilled forward upper box cross member and all bolt holes for splice plates. That's the 90 deg. drill extension from Mc Master-Carr on the drill. 10/11/99

Test fit of turtledeck formers. At former #3 there is interference with seat belt attach point. I will measure all of this again, then modify former to fit if required. Would be nice if seat belt attach points were ~3/8" further inboard (would require changing size of triangular mount plates). Formers #2 & #4 are clecoe-clamped together at top using the center beam attach clips. Formers #3 are ~5" apart at top. 10/11/99

Set up to drill center channel. I reversed the C-section of the center channel because I cut the ends opposite to the print. Rather than scrap the center channel, I remade the 2 end clips opposite to print. 10/12/99

Fuselage on right side with t-deck skin under left side skin. 10/12/99

Rope from ceiling used to support skin after drilling left side. Fuselage was rolled left, skin pulled off table, and wrapped to right side. 10/12/99

Solution for interference with shoulder harness attach points. Hit straight flange of former #3 with fluting pliers to create clearance. 10/13/99

Close up of clearance bend. 10/13/99

Formers #3 fitted around shoulder harness mounts. 10/13/99

Aft fuselage hung from ceiling to work formers from below. Assembly is larger than basement hatch. T-deck will be fitted, and riveted outside or in garage. 10/13/99

Looks like an airplane. It's too close to the wall to fit it all in the shot. 10/13/99