Horsa Progress Report

Over recent weeks the volunteers have been pushing forward with progress on the Port-wing leading edge and main spar. All ribs were created from scratch using original copies of the technical drawings used for Horsa construction during the 1940’s.

Each wing rib was created individually by hand using Douglas Fir for the frame and Birch Plywood for the biscuits offering stability to each rib.

Each sheet of Plywood is first lightly pinned onto the ribs to assess size and adjustments can be made where necessary. This preparation techniques ensure that the ply sheets fit appropriately when fully-attaching them to the wing section.

The ply sheets above on this photograph have been securely fastened to the ribs using brass pins and this process will be repeated throughout the wing.

Work on the Horsa wings has been an extremely time-consuming and delicate operation due to many of the technical drawings having approximate measurements detailed on them. The volunteers have done an absolutely fantastic job getting to this stage and this quality of work will continue throughout 2010.