Dihedral, holding it there

16 November 2022

When there is no depth, the joint is weak and it can fail. Clapping wings is a catastrophe.

In Farman Moustique, the stressed area was exchanged from butt joints to the area in contact with the fuselage. Struts will have similar effect for other models.

If there is no depth, such as a single foil wing which uses only leading and trailing edge sticks and positioned above a stick fuselage, an idea is to add thin aluminium strips to the leading and trailing edges. It may still bend but it won't break and can be bent back to the dihedral angle. Aluminium, plastic or paper tubes will also work, the latter being rather weak. Paper tubes may also be made in placed by wrapping tissue around the leading and trailing sticks, but the centre rib will get in the way, so as an alternative, the centre rib can be added after the joints are wrapped.