Bag made from 7mil plastic
Since I have a 4 day weekend, I can get pretty far with the wing sheeting. The method I like to use is vacuum bagging. I truly beleive this is the easiest method and most accurate way to sheet wings. I also feel it is the lightest method. There is no real need to go out and buy expensive equipment. There are a few places such as ACP and CST that offer a little device called EZ Vac. It is a continuous running pump that is inexpensive and works great for sheeting wings. The bagging sleeves and clamps are available from the same sources. I have loaned those items out so I will be using 7mil plastic tarp material and sealing tape for my bag and the same vacuum pump that I use for fuselage production just dialed down a bit.

Shuck baseplate made from 1/8" MDF.


Shuck baseplate attached to shucks with double sided tape. The baseplates help distribute even pressure on the cores and help keep everything straight.

Match the slot in the core for the wing fence/strut mount in the upper and lower wing sheeting.

Check fit to make sure everything lines up.


The stack up that will get placed into the vacuum bag less the 1 mil plastic sheeting that will go between the shuck and wing sheeting. This is a preventative step to make sure the wing does not accidentally get glued to the shucks. Keep in mind that these are the master shucks and will need to be used 4 sheeting cycles.

Time to sheet a wing half. Balsa skin prior to epoxy resin.


Wing skin after epoxy application. Each skin got 1/2 oz.

Bottom master shuck with 1mil plastic barrier.


Bottom skin placed on shuck adhesive side up.


Core placed on the sheeting, line up the access slot for wing fence.

Add the top skin and plastic barrier.


The upper master shuck in place and then lightly tape the assembly together.

Two layers of paper towel as breather cloth is taped on top.


The whole stack up is put into the bag and 5 inches of vacuum is pulled. A straight edge is placed on top to verify straightness. The wing will be kept under vacuum for a minimum of 12 hours. I typically like 20 hours better.

No, both wings are perfectly flat. Coming up soon I will illustrate how I determine that and how I get both wings to have the exact same amount of sweep.

The other half of the lower wing made it into the vacuum bag today.


After sliding the upper wings onto the prototype Divergent to verify the roots sit flush with the fuselage, the root ribs were glued into place.

Flat through the centerline.

Jester, these wings are quite thin. The toot thickness is only 1 3/16". It becomes a case of not enough juice for the squeeze. I may at best be able to save 10 grams and then the wings would be too delicate IMO. They would handle flight loads just fine but would have to be handled with a light touch and the honeycomb pattern would be visible on the outter skin. I had one airplane a few years ago with honeycombed wings and hated it. The lower wing panel I just sheeted come out at 4.9 oz. Quite happy with that.

Now some fun starts. The next step is to sand the wing sheeting flush with the cores. Cut the slot into the wings for the center brace and join the lower wings together.

Joining the lower wing halfs begins with laying the upper wings into the master shucks with the wing tube inserted. The sweep angle is already eastablished in the upper wing, this step gets the master shucks in the correct sweep for the bottom wing.


Tape is placed on the table as alignment marks to duplicate the sweep angle later.

The wings are secured to the master shucks with tape, lined up with the tape marks and a 12" slot is drawn out on the wings and cut out on a scroll saw.


The wings were removed and the master shucks were taped together in correct alignment/sweep.

Protective plastic sheeting was put down on the center of the master shucks.


Epoxy was spread in the slot and wing roots, the wings were then taped together and to the master shucks. Epoxy was brushed on the wing joiner which is made from 1/8" lite ply and the joiner is slid into place.