Wheel-bay cover fastening ring for VL Myrsky II

Lauantai 18.3.2017 - Member of Tuesday Club


Suomeksi

The landing-gear of the Myrsky retracts towards the fuselage with the struts and wheels retracting into bays between the main spars in the roots of the single, continuous wing.

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On the top-side of the wing the wheel-bays are covered with slightly domed covers made of aluminium-plate. The covers are fastened with screws to a plywood ring forming the wheel-bay. Most of the wheel-bays, including their aluminium cover-plates remain hidden under the mid-fuselage covering the centre-part of the single wing, but a part of them are covered by streamlining-plates at the wing/fuselage joints.

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The aluminium-plate wheel-bay covers have already been made and now the making of the three needed cover-fastening rings are underway. One is needed for the test-assembly wing and two for the final wing that will be made for the MY-14.

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The making of the fastening-rings begun by making a mould. As on the drawings, a circle with a diameter of 750 mm was drawn onto a strong wooden board. Then sturdy nail were nailed along the drawn line with a spacing of ca. 2 inches. The fastening-rings will now be made by laminating eight layers of 3 mm thick 30 mm high, long plywood strips against the nailed circle, thus forming a 25 mm thick fastening-ring.

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The first plywood-layer was tightened against the nails and onto it three more layers were glued using Erikeeper plus adhesive intended for outdoors use. The four layers were pressed tightly together using clamps. When the adhesive had dried properly, the clamps were released and the next four layer were added using the same procedure.

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When the adhesive had dried the fastening-ring was removed from the mould and finished. It was then planed into a triangular cross-section with a top width of 25 mm. The other two rings will be made in the same way.

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As the test-wing had been fitted into the assembly-jig and the part between the wing-spars had been assembled the test-fitting of the fastening-ring could be made. And it was a good fit. Also the aluminium cover-plate went into place nicely. The next step will be making and fitting the plywood landing-gear well walls in the wing.

Avainsanat: aviation history, restoring, old aircraft, VL Myrsky II, MY-14