Mig 23 wings attached

Another long day for the volunteers.


The wheels and jack screws on the wing fixtures allow the wings to be moved and positioned for alignment with the fuselage. On the left, a wing is shown before it is pushed into final position. The Mig-23 is a "swing wing" aircraft. The wings swing forward for takeoff and landing, and swing back for high speed flight. The pivot point is the pin assembly. The picture on the right shows a pin assembly on the floor below the wing attach point.


The wings are manually moved into position and adjusted until the bearing holes align.


Once the wing is perfectly aligned, the pin can be dropped into place. The pin acts as a strong pivot bearing and is the single structural attach point for the wing.

After the pin is positioned and rotated for alignment, a smaller keeper pin is inserted, locking it in place. Getting everything just right puts a smile on Bill's face.

Getting Ready for Saturday

MiG-23 wing pin grease... Changing the grease in the pin is like scooping a quart of doggy doo out of a mason jar -- by hand. The wing pin consists of twelve parts... it's a hollow 163mm pin with two caps that rides in an upper and lower bronze ring. A keeper centers the pin vertically between the two rings. At each end of the pin is a sliding plate with a felt ring that feeds grease into groves on the bearing surface. Should be interesting trying to keep the plates and felt in position as we slide the wing into place.


The wing pin assembly is massive.


Mi-2 batteries on charger. Bord 211 is almost ready for its experimental exhibition airworthiness certificate. New blades will be installed Saturday morning and then balanced the old school way -- a different color of chalk on the end of each blade strikes a roll of paper at the end of a long pole. Adjust the blades after examining the chalk marks and repeat.


We've discovered that a pair of Odyssey 925MJ batteries fit into the Mi-2 and Mi-24 battery boxes almost perfectly. The Odyssey batteries are sealed (they can be shipped, fully charged, via UPS with no special consideration) and do well with the Soviet philosophy -- the voltage regulator does what it can and the battery is expected to absorb any imperfections in the system. We've found that the Odyssey batteries last longer, start stronger, and hold up better than "real" aircraft batteries.

Plans for Saturday include starting Mi-2 bord 211 and first attempt at installing the wings on the MiG-23.

Mule is Kicking

The hydraulic mule that was donated a year ago was finally tested on 3-phase power and seems to work quite well. The museum is looking for 100' of 6 AWG or 8 AWG four-wire extension cable (flexible) or three-wire + ground. This will allow us to use the mule in almost any location in hangar three.

This mule has a 10 hp motor which drives two independent systems serving up to 3000 psi. Several of the aircraft require a high-volume, high-pressure mule to fully test their hydraulic systems.

Jethro Stops by in the F-5

Jethro stopped by in a US Navy F-5 from his aggressor squadron in Key West, Florida. Planes from various Navy Reserve squadrons were invited to fly the opening of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and he invited us out to take a look.

This F-5 is painted up to simulate a MiG-21... it even has a red star on the tail. Two F/A-18s in blue/blue MiG-29 color schemes (also complete with red star) were also in town.

Here, museum rotor-wing instructor, Tracie, is seen trying to locate the collective in the F-5. :-)