I have always thought that a biplane can be just about the most exciting plane at the field. Very few people have them though. They are a little harder to build, and probably much harder to repair. For that last reason I think they are a natural for a SPAD, since needed SPAD repairs are few and far between. I have about 30 flights with my new one and not one mishap. I had a hard time when I built mine when it came to aligning the wings. Both wings were set at zero incidences which meant they had to be parallel to each other. It is very easy to state the requirements but the feat in itself can be daunting. I aligned things, then tied everything together (I chose putting everything together with string rather than with glue so I could change my mind) then checked the alignment with the incidence meter and things were off. I had to cut things lose and start over. This had to be repeated a few times. It became frustrating. I was fortunate in that I had built two biplane kits (not ARFs) about twenty and ten years ago so I knew how the alignment was done on a kit, plus I still had the plans to study and had noted that the alignment was built into the kit. All that was needed was to build the kit accurately. The way we build our SPADS can make alignment very interesting (difficult). As I finished my biplane and flew it many times, I kept in mind the desire to make the alignment easier, more full- proof, a bit automatic; built-in as in the kits I had built.
I came up with an idea that makes the three struts alignment fixtures. The struts include wing ribs at their ends, top and bottom, plus the proper angle to arrive at the correct wing stagger. Since I still saw plenty of problems ahead I decided to build a wing assembly; two wings and three struts assembled to make one sturdy unit, so I could solve some of these problems. Here are some photos I took along the way. As is usually the case, there are still problems to be solved. The top wing is glued together but the bottom wing is not yet glued. Somehow a warp occurred while clamping the top wing closed and this deviation is now amplified in the bottom wing. The ideal situation was to glue the top and bottoms wings at the same time, and make adjustments as needed before the glue dried. However, I would have needed a lot more hands. I’m now thinking of ungluing the top wing, make the warp correction, and then assemble everything with a combination of just a little glue and lots of strings. The assembly as it is now feels much more rigid than the wings on my flying biplane. The new wing assembly can be mounted to my biplane by removing the left wheel strut, the fuel tank, two bolts, and cutting some strings. Glad to hear any comments, questions, or suggestions.