The team completed work on the ailerons recently. It was a relatively straightforward process once we had all of the material and parts. The ribs were provided by Rainbow Aviation and the stock for the leading and trailing edges came from Aircraft Spruce. Follow the process from start to finish via the illustrations provided below.
We started the build process by deburring all of the aileron ribs.
Some of the rib halves were missing from our order so instead of waiting for the replacements to ship, we decided to cut our own on the water jet. They were cut from .025" 2024 aluminum sheet.
The next step involved a 90 degree bend in the ribs.
Prior to executing any of the riveting we clecoed all of the rib halves together and laid them out as they would attach to the leading and trailing edges of the aileron.
After cutting the leading edge of the aileron to length it's time to deburr the edges.
The ends of the leading edge are now drilled for the eye bolts that will be used to hinge the aileron to the trailing edge of the wing.
The hole locations for the ribs are marked on the leading edge. The ribs are then aligned to the mark, drilled, and clecoed into place.
All hands on deck for more drilling and clecoing.
Up until now we have used a pneumatic rivet gun to do all the riveting. Our Robotics team recently acquired this cordless, electric riveter which offers a bit more portability (no compressor or hoses) than the pneumatic machines.
The ribs have been riveted to the leading edge and the trailing edge has been clecoed in place. The last 4 ribs on the outboard side of the aileron are angled up to provide about 1-1/2" of washout.
Left and right ailerons mostly complete. The control horns still need to be riveted on. We will wait to complete this step until we've assembled the wings.
We will most likely use Oratex to cover the ailerons.
