I have always wondered exactly how planes with 3 peice or more wings attach together. Say for instance Macs B-29, I see it getting assembled and it has separate wing tip sections that plug into a center section of wing. Are their access pannels in each section that allow you to bolt the sections together? If thats not how it works can you explain and possibly show pictures.

It depends on the design of the plane. Some use a screw through a hard block into the joiner tube. This can be troublesome because the thin wall aluminum tube will quickly strip out with repeated insertinons and removal of the screw. Some times a plug is put in the end of the aluminum for more meat for the screw. It isn't stress pulling things apart that is the issue, but wear and tear from assembly and disassembly. Any setup that will keep the wing from slipping off the tube will work. When the wing does slip out, and looses the orentation pins, things get ugly quickly.

I saw one glider that a guy had out to the field last year that the wing outer pannels were held to the center wing by a strip of transparent tape. The pilot had a roll of 3/8" wide tape tthat he made one wrap on the joint, capturing both pannels. 3/16" on each pannel. It worked fine. Blue painters tape would probably be just fine in this example. A big gasser will need a more positive retentinon though. My 1/3 scale Laser 200 uses a 4-40 socket head screw through the wing into the aluminum tube to retain the wing to the fuselage

Don

A company called "giant scale twins" has a very nice product for joining wing sections. To me it is the nicest I have seen and is what I am using to build my first 3 piece wing for my 103 inch wingspan BT-13. Check out their website, a much simpler option than drilling huge holes for alignment of a tube in my opinion.
Denny

Do you have a link? I'm about ready to start Black Widdow Arf and If I can improve things before I start building I would like to.

Don

I see on those particular joiners they have notches cut out of the aluminum bar to act as a stopper. On some joiners I have seen, the aluminum bar is just flat without notches and the screws are just supposed to tighten down on top of it. It just doesnt seem like that would hold a big wing section on very well. I have never used one so I dont know anything about them though.

Just Google "Giant Scale Twins" . They are plenty strong, I also used 2 alignment dowels at the front and rear of the wing. I have some pictures in my 1/5 scale BT-13 build thread here in RCU.
Denny

Here is the link, Don:

http://giantscaletwins.com/accessories.htm

Magnets?...........Just an idea.

More ideas:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_87...tm.htm#8790419

I guess I just half to try it because somehow I cant picture it being very strong. Have you ever seen the Sig wing joiner. It is similar to the one on giant scale twins only it does not have the screw go in on an angle and there is no notch on the aluminum bar that slides into the female section. Seems like if you gave the wing a good tug, it loosen or even pull right out.

The steel part that slides into the aluminum channel gets an angled notch that the end of the bolt sets onto, this means when you tighten the screw, the outer wing panel is pulled tighter to the center section, Believe me, its plenty strong. I mounted it to ply wing webbing. I have full confidence in this product. I researched different methods of attaching wing panels and I felt this was the best and by far the easiest to align and install.
Denny