Carbon wing

[ToddJ]

Anyone ever thought of building the wing complete in carbon. Seems the ribs could be made very quickly as molded parts and the Spars would as well. Would save about 175 pounds per side

 

[jaredyates]

Sounds great, you first! Seriously though, Bob is really comfortable with carbon and other composites and I would bet it would make his day to spend 20 minutes talking with you about this. Call him and report back what he has to say. He might have a good reason not to, or he might not have a good reason. It may take a few tries to catch him at (540) 473-3661

 

[ToddJ]

I will I would love to listen to him tell me his thoughts

 

[gregc]

Clint Busenitz is building Badlands Traveler wings with carbon fiber ribs. It looks like they are using aluminum spars. There are some visuals at around 7:20 in this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahuARlQuzps

 

[CokerAviation]

My main worry would be the corrosion factor when putting carbon ribs on aluminum spars if you went that way and or having the aluminum skins on the carbon parts. Or were you talking about a full carbon wing?

 

[ToddJ]

The more I went down this rabbit hole the reality is at some point you will have to isolate the carbon from the metal. Ribs and spar in carbon create a really different design of a wing layout. Not sure of using rivets to skin aluminum to carbon ribs. If you went full carbon now your caps of ribs and spars need to be much larger for a good lay up. It really would be a complete new design. I am not a aircraft designer. ?. It was a fun exercise into learning about carbon. I am sticking with the design as Bob drew it.