ORIGINAL: Lomcevak Duck
Thanks guys. So where does the wing get its strength? The plans called for shear webs to be placed between the ribs on the main spar. Do these give the wing strength? If I wanted to really beef up a wing to take a ton of abuse, where should I concentrate?
1) Spars and stringers
2) Shear webs (make the spars stronger)
3) Sheeting
4) Dihedral brace(s)
Bingo!!!! What he said.
Those are the main structural components of a wing. Like I said, the ribs are there to keep the airfoil shape of the wing. If you look at most good kits you will see that the ribs will have huge holes cut out of them. Those are called lightening holes. Because the ribs aren't main structural components you can remove a large amount of the wood and the rib will still function in maintaining the shape of the wing, the wood is removed the lighten the overall weight of the plane.
Ken