• Building a Nieuport 11 replica •
• Rigging •
The rigging is mainly 1/8" cable with AN16 turnbuckles.
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Aerofoil struts.
The undercarriage legs, cabanes and v-struts are aluminium extrusions with a central tube - left in the picture.
The tube is 20mm I.D.
The undercarriage legs are reinforced at top and bottom with an extra 20mm O.D. aluminium tube (3mm wall) - shown at right.
The bottom end of the cabanes are similarly reinforced.
The top end of the cabanes and each end of the v-struts have machined inserts (centre). These slot into the extrusion and attach to brackets. The holes in the inserts are drilled during the final rigging process: the inserts can slide and rotate within the extrusion to allow final adjustment.
One advantage of this system is that it allows the struts to join the wings at an angle of 6 degrees (to match the wing sweep) rather than 90 degrees.
The completed machined parts.
Holes will be drilled on assembly.
The front cabane insert attached to the wing brackets.
The wing has 6 degrees of sweepback and so the system allows the struts to align parallel to the airflow.
Once a couple of days fine weather were predicted it was time to start rigging.
A jig was made to enable the wing to be lifted to the correct height single-handedly.
The fuselage is then slid in below and the wing lowered.
The fuselage was checked level laterally and longitudinally and the height of the wing above the fuselage checked.
The wings were propped level and wings and fuselage were then secured in position.
The front and rear cabane struts were then drilled for their final bolts.
The transverse forward cross wires between the front cabanes were then swaged.
Equal length wires were run from the rudder post to each wingtip to ensure the wings were perpendicular to the fuselage.
The tail was propped up to ensure the top longeron was horizontal.
The rear cabane struts were drilled once everything was level and square.
The tang for the rear drag wire is visible.
Just visible are the cross bracing wires on the front cabanes.
The V struts were then inserted and height checked.
The aileron bellcrank can be seen at top right.
The front v strut attachment uses a block for attachment.
The rear v strut can be attached directly to the spar brackets.
A fairing plate at the base of the v struts strengthens the attachment.
The lift and drag wires were then swaged.
Three swages are required - only one has been completed. The others will be done once the wires have been detached.
The completed V struts.
I looked at applying a custom sticker to replicate the wood effect.
In the end I just sprayed the struts with a paint that as closely matched a wood effect as possible.
