Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Longerons

Not yet I hope..After a horrid winter have been starting to dig myself out of a hole I hope..
The Spitfire is held together by longitudinal members that hold the Frames together.There are three main members,the Spine,the Datum and the lower..
Starting with the Spine this member starts at the top of Frame11 and continues down the top of the fuselage to Frame19.This is a V shape with bent flanges that the top skins rivet to.
The datum is as it sounds a Longeron that follows the Datum line of the aircraft.This is a "U" shaped piece with flanges to rivet onto the side skin.It starts at Frame5 which the top engine mount bolts to and goes back 47 inches to Frame 14 only.Just after frame 13 it tapers back by the centre being cut out and the flanges bent to a single point where it connects to a bracket.
The bottom Longerons are situated at the bottom corners of the aircraft and split into Forward and Aft sections,both of different construction.The Forward section is a fabricated member consisting of an L shape and C shape riveted together.The top inner edges straight and the outer edges curved to suit the fuselage.This starts at Frame5 and using big brackets bolts through the bottom spar to accept the bottom engine mounts.Going back it ends at Frame10 where the rear wing mount sits.There it changes to a single "W" shaped member which curves back all the way to Frame19.In side plan it is straight but in plan view it matches the curve of the fuselage.Also due the curvature of the frames the angles change,same as the datum longeron.The two sections at Frame10 are Spliced together by an angled plate.
Various triangular and angle brackets tie the frames into the Longeron members and all different.some designs are WIP so will update when finished..




2 comments:

  1. Looking very good, please keep up the good work.

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  2. Hello Ross,
    'Hope you are well. I am still working with Spits, but limit my stuff to frame 5 forward, and the wings. Helmut Terbeck has been contacting me asking questions about the fuselage. I have helped a little, but he is trying to email you, and thinks you have a new address. If you'd like to ping me an email at spitfire3d@gmail.com , I could pass your address on, if you didn't mind.
    Best regards. Have a good Christmas! 'Bet we have better snow than you have !

    Cheers,

    Justin

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