Aeronautical not Nautical but this seems to be a good place to find some help.

[JMac]

The problem to be solved:
We are building a 1/6 scale this model of the 1903 Wright Flyer for a local aircraft display. All the alignment and strength of the wings comes from the rigging between the struts. As can be seen in the photo the wings are in a fixture and we used some plain steel wire to get the wings close to square. We are using Kevlar thread for the rigging and the braces from the top of the strut to the bottom of the adjacent strut. You can see these mocked up on the center three struts. We need to secure one end permanently and the other end temporarily while making alignment adjustments on all for cables. When the alignment is correct tie off the connection permanently. We would repeat the process laterally and fore/aft until all are completed.

Note: The thread running parallel to wing is temporary and not part of the rigging.

Image, Rigging-17, shows the attachment on a replica. Our installation is the same and can be seen if you zoom in on our photo. There is no solid connection between the wings.

Any ideas or input would be appreciated and what type of knots or process would work for this installation.

Thanks.
John

 

[Corsair]

if I remember correctly, the wing was not real rigid. They used "wing warping" for roll control/stability.

 

[JMac]

Yes, the outer wing panels, the last two bays, are only partially braced to allow wing warping for lateral control.

The center five struts use rigging to provide a rigid structure. The challenge is how to make an adjustable knot to allow adjustment of the rigging until the struts and wings are square.

 

[Jerome]

Could you use a small piece of brass tubing as a sort of compression fitting, and once everything is where it needs to be squeeze the fittings tight.
If it needs to be a tied knot a simple half hitch with a drop of clear nail polish to “glue” it, then trim to suit.

 

[JMac]

Jerome,

Thanks for the reply.
This is good advice and we are working in that direction now. The critical part is being able to adjust the tension on three to five pairs of rigging to get the wing square and not loose the tension as you go back and forth and then be able to secure.

Tomorrow we are going to try the crimps and see if that will work.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[Daniel20]

This was my solution. A drop of CA into the tube holds up quite well. The tubing was 1.5mm OD the smallest I could find cut into 5mm lengths.


Good luck.

 

[JMac]

Daniel20,
Thanks for the reply and info. Which model of the flyer are you building? Your installation is very neat. This is the direction we are going to try.

 

[Daniel20]

My version is the 1903 one. The kit design is for exposed ribs but like yours I decided to cover the wings. Look in my signature section below and click on the Wrigt Flyer in blue and it will take you to my complete build.