April was a great month with lots of good progress.
The men have been making excellent progress on both wings. The majority of the skinning and riveting on the forward top and bottom of the right-hand wing is now completed. All of the in-conduit wiring, pitot, and aileron cable tubing, and drop tank pressure and feed lines are now pre-installed in the right-hand wing.
The final structure set-up on the left-hand wing has now been completed and the preliminary dimpling, counter-sinking and skinning of the top skins is progressing.
Due to the spring/summer temperature changes, the crew must check the washout, sweep and dihedral each morning when it is cool and each afternoon as the temperature increases 30 to 40 degrees. The wings are fixtured to not allow the temperature variations (expansions and contractions) to change the set-ups. We must maintain the exact dihedral and the washout measurements to within one-twentieth of one degree so that the aircraft will fly “hands off”.
With the dihedral and washout locked in to those degree settings, the final reaming of the .3735 lower wing-attach bolt holes on both wings has now been completed. (A reamer is a precision cutting tool to bring a reduced-drilled-size hole out to final size. A drill bit will not drill a precision hole.)
On wing-attach angles, nut plate channels are used where one cannot gain access to the wing-attaching nuts to tighten them. North American, however, installed nut plate channels with nonstandard spacing on the upper sides of the lower attach angles located in the fuel tank bays. None of the original channels we had were repairable, and the uneven spacing made it impossible to purchase a standard nut plate channel from any supplier. Thus we had to make up all the new nut plate channel strips.
One of our sub-contract machine shops is now heavy into completing the aileron sectors and mounting hinge points for both wings.
Canopy, Windshields and Glare Shields
The second canopy glass has now been fit into the repaired canopy frame. It took parts out of all three damaged canopies that we had to repair and complete the right-hand canopy frame.
With the dihedral and washout locked in to those degree settings, the final reaming of the .3735 lower wing-attach bolt holes on both wings has now been completed. (A reamer is a precision cutting tool to bring a reduced-drilled-size hole out to final size. A drill bit will not drill a precision hole.)
Wing attach nut plate channels
Left-hand lower wing attach angle with nut plate channels riveted on.
Canopy, Windshields and Glare Shields
The second canopy glass has now been fit into the repaired canopy frame. It took parts out of all three damaged canopies that we had to repair and complete the right-hand canopy frame.
The damaged and corroded right-hand canopy frame
Repaired right-hand canopy frame with fitted glass
The right-hand glare shield was another story. The restoration to the left-hand one was relatively simple as it was basically undamaged. The damaged right-hand one required a major amount of repair and splicing together many repressed parts to complete an airworthy unit.
Munched right-hand glare shield
Newly repaired right-hand glare shield
We have completed both center 1.5” thick, bullet-resistant windshield glasses. We are in the process of forming our four windshield side glasses to fit the windshield bows and glare shield frames.
New 1.5" thick, bulled-resistent windshield glasses
Throttle Quadrant Cables
One of our men is currently completing all of the cable hook-ups that simultaneously link both quadrants together through cables that run through the center section from one cockpit to the other.
The original throttle quadrant
Throttle quadrant cable hook-ups with detail (below)
Inside Skins for Outboard Gear Doors
Pat Harker (F-82E, Anoka, MN) has built the tooling and has successfully pressed one set of skins for his serpentine-shaped outboard gear doors. He has offered to sell us a pair for our project. Thank you, Pat!
Heat Treating
We brought another batch of parts that needed heat-treating to Thrush Aircraft in Albany, GA, to be brought up to T-3 condition. The amount of special help Thrush has given us has been priceless. Thank you, Thrush.
Thrush Aircraft's new 710P
"Unmatched power. Unquestioning control"
The Katz
They took two weeks off to go to Daytona for Spring Break. More on the Katz next month.
Thankx.
Tom
