Sunday, July 5, 2009

MigMan

We have fun whenever we can at the Cold War Air Museum and fortunately most of us maintain a sense of humor, most of the time.

Phil completed a project this weekend to attach the Mig21 wing so that Charles can finish fabricating the replacement short spar in the right wing leading edge.

Jon arrived just in time to help with setting the wing attach pins in place and to demonstrate a Victory Dance on top of the wing (we like airplanes we can walk on - or dance on, none of this wimpy Cessna stuff, thank you).

We had a delay from our earlier work bringing the Mig-21 together when we discovered some damage on one of the pieces of the wing. Our airframe consultant recommended replacing the piece and fortunately one of our volunteers was capable of fabricating a replacement.

The replacement piece is shown with the damaged piece above. The person fabricating this piece has made many "one of a kind" pieces for special U.S. aircraft and he was surprised at the techniques and technology embodied in the part (bearing in mind our belief about what we thought their capabilities were at the time).

The temporary attachment allows the replacement piece to be positioned so that rivet holes joining it to the wing skin and leading edge spar can be drilled in place, ensuring that the new piece perfectly replaces the old. After these holes are drilled, the replacement piece will be removed and a surface treatment applied before final attachment.

The wing will be removed and re-attached at least once more before final attachment. The lessons learned in each experience are incorporated as we go along.

Here, the wing dance floor and the wing attach bolts are shown prepped and ready for Jon's arrival.

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