engineering update: https://content.eaa.org/Videos/Homebuil ... 9422214112
seem to be a lot of misses on the initial design philosophy but they are recovering. how do you miss storing fuel in the wings? I was surprised about the lack of FEA stress analysis comment. you would think they would be doing a lot of FEA by now to understand the critical areas such as elevator hinge brackets.
the trial and error approach in designing something is expensive in multiple ways. FEA can help to get it right the first time, especially the small critical areas. the aircraft industry was using FEA 50 yrs ago! nice to watch a young company's Engineering evolve. what I have seen Van's do about problems is add doublers, sometimes doublers on top of doublers, like the elevator hinge attachment. this works well when the loads are in shear but not so well for tension. in tension the doubler acts like a washer to spread the load directly at rivet head and is only marginally effective and not the best approach. it is always better to load sheet metal in shear. think about shear flow baby, from your mechanics 101 stress analysis class!
if you fly an alum experimental aircraft, invest in good inspection tools such as a borescope and dye penetrant and regularly inspect the critical areas. basically, keep a close eye on it.
may Van's live long and proper!
-9C this morning in Ciincy, time to fly.... BTW, the guys at DarkAero seem to be using sound Engineering and pushing state-of-the-art materials. I expect some amazing results.
