Many friends and clients know I’ve been slowly building a replica of a 1930’s era biplane called a Tiger Moth at a hangar at Camarillo airport.

3 wings are done and hanging in the rafters and I’m almost finished with the 4th – the lower right wing that has an aileron (controls the turns). I’ve just made the aluminum brackets for the pivots that the aileron will swing from. After double checking all the alignment (you might faintly see my orange thread clamped down as a string line in the photo), I’ll epoxy that long plywood piece (the aileron spar) into place.

So far, it’s “pretty close” (within a 1/16″ tolerance) but I need to get it right on the money before I glue it in. The aileron was built as part of the wing structure, that is, the back end of the ribs that form the wing are also going to be the aileron. Once that plywood spar gets epoxy’d in, I will carefully cut the upper and lower rib caps which will make the aileron independent of the wing itself.

The lower photo is a close up of the aluminum bracket temporarily bolted into the rear spar of the wing.

Ultimately, the aileron and wings will be covered in fabric – just like the old days!

Click on the photos for a larger image.