Wing under construction. The ribs are being bonded into the wing skin which is still in its mold. The ribs are held with metal fixtures attached to the wing skin mold.

The two wing skin molds being put together.

The bend test wing, bonded but not yet trimmed. You still may be able to see the strings that were used to pull the leading edge reinforcement strip against the leading edge from the inside.

A graphite flaperon before installation in the wing.

An end view of a wing flaperon. The flaperon is hinged at the bottom and has a sliding seal at the top. The anti-flutter counterweights are inside the leading edge of the flaperon.

Fiberglass wing bend test at 5.7 G's.

The final touches being put on one side fuselage mold. The pressure bulkhead and floor molds are removable so that the fuselage can be layed up in stages.

The tail boom and vertical stabilizer plug, ready for carving to final shape. Laser cut masonite templates are interspersed with polystrene foam. The boom plug is attached to a test wing center section.

The landing gear being drop-tested using a forklift and five drums of water on a welded steel frame used to simulate the aircraft weight and landing attitude. The landing gear is designed to absorb crash landings up to 20 ft/sec without landing gear, airframe or prop damage.

Prop on test stand after first test. Note the channel iron ring around the prop intended to contain debris in case of prop failure.

A view into the armored cockpit in the test stand. The controls shown will be used in the actual aircraft, but the gauges are just for testing.

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