Folding wing question

[Slice1969]

Hello everyone, I'm a brand new member here, and have a quick question about the the STI folding wings.

I am currently and airline guy, and have not flown anything with a propeller in over 20 years. I'm going to change that soon.

My long term plan is to start construction in 8 to 10 years, to be ready to fly when I retire.

In the meantime, I have recently moved to the country and I now have a large steel building. I have 46' x 47' of space that will be framed in with 10' ceilings. There will be an upstairs that will become my man cave. Due to that, I am guessing I will have multiple columns and possibly some specialized trusses. I will be consulting with an engineer before construction.

I plan to fly and hangar the airplane at my house. I will have to fold the wings to get an airplane into my shop. Here is my question: Should I build enough open space on the 1st floor to allow unfolding of the wings?

[neville]

Yes I would create space to unfold in the hangar. I keep my SS7 at home in a section of my barn which was prepared by remodeling, adding a garage door, and a loading dock the same height as the trailer. I trailer the two miles to the airport. The issue is that some times inspections or maintenance requires the wings be un-folded. No problem on a nice day but bad weather puts a delay on work. You can search the forum for " trailering a kitfox SS7" for the video of my operation. The width and height of the opening need consideration. With the wings folded the width of the plane is about 8 feet, but it is wise to have some padding between the flaperons and the vertical stab. I used 9 feet wide and only have 2 inches clearance on each side. Should be 10 feet wide. Height depends, on nose wheel or tail wheel plus if you are going to have a raise up door the ceiling has to be high enough to allow for height of tail plus the door mechanism.

[t j]

I agree, make space to spread your wings.

[Slice1969]

Thanks for the replies.

The door for my building is 12' wide and 10' tall, so I should be good there. I am definitely going tailwheel, so I should be able to get the get the airplane in, even sitting on my trailer.

The question is going to be is how close can I space my support columns to still allow the wing to be unfolded inside? I would also like to add a couple of feet of wiggle room.

Are there any detailed drawings of the dimensions on the website that I have missed? By rough estimates, I think I will need a 20' x 38' open span to accommodate unfolding the wings with room to work.

The construction cost goes up with the length of span of my floor joists.

[SomeDay7]

Paint template on Kitfox website.

[t j]

Attached is a PDF file of a template of the S-7.

Direct link to the S-7 specs on the factory web page https://www.kitfoxaircraft.com/index.php/supersport-specs

With wings folded it is 22' 7" long.

To spread the wings in that space you may need to put the plane on dollys. Spread one wing, move the plane sideways, then spread the other wing. That's how I did it my shop.

[PapuaPilot]

Your 20' length could be a problem. If the engine and prop are installed the length is about 20', but it gets even longer with the wings folded. I think mine is about 20.5' x 32' with the wings out and 22' x 8' with the wings folded.

If you don't install the engine and just work on the airframe you could use the 38' x 20'. If you leave the rudder and elevator off you will shorten it another 2'. You would be down to about 15' without the engine and tail, but you could have it sitting on its wheels.

[Slice1969]

Thanks, I can work with those images to get some rough dimensions for the fold.


The 20' span length would just be the distance between the columns, so the rest would be open space. I figure the distance from the tip of the spinner to the front of the wind is roughly 3 or 4 feet. So, think about a column on either side of the nose, about halfway out the wing. From there, go aft about 20' to the next column. I think that will work.

I am going to diagram it up for the engineer. I'll post a picture of it once I am done.

[t j]

That would be good. The dollys require lot of Monkey Motion.

https://i.imgur.com/O8e8ARr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/skMWQtt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VfUkMjo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Y9iiXDM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Z8fPz54.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1P2tVG7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hWMZQ5t.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jbhzwgO.jpg

[Slice1969]

Thanks for the pictures.. it looks like a nice space! Mine is literally just an empty steel building right now. I don't even have electricity yet.

[Slice1969]

I sketched it out, and the dimensions should be roughly correct. It looks like a 20' open span will work. Once the wings are unfolded, I'll be able to push the aircraft back and have plenty of room on all sides... that is if this design will work for the floor load above. I have a meeting with the engineer in a few weeks.

24649

[Shadowrider]

With the sti wing you can’t completely fold the wings without removing the flapperons because of the stall fence. FYI

[Slice1969]

Good to know, thanks. Any idea how wide it would be without removing the flapperons? My door is 12' wide. I would be flying off of my property, so I wouldn't need to trailer it often.

[Shadowrider]

Once we get the stall fences on we can give you an estimate. We have a 10’ wide garage door and they barely fit through the garage door with the wings fully folded.

[3 tracks]

You did say STI didn't you? The cord is longer and will not fold flat to the vertical without removing the flapperon, I have one. I was shocked when I tried to fold mine.

[rv9ralph]

Folding wings make for convenience when storing... however, it can be a hassle when you go flying often. If you do not need to transport your Kitfox, I recommend building to accommodate not having to fold the wings.

Just my $.02

Ralph

[Shadowrider]

Yeah we could barely fit ours through a 10’ wide door with the STI wing folded and no stall fence. If we had the stall fence on I don’t think it would fit through a 12’ door.

[jdmcbean]

Well.. I have received several emails regarding this.. Classic case of being on the internet it must be true.. well it is not.
Thank you for those that emailed and asked.

The wings will fold all the way on the STi... If you intend on folding the wings you may have to modify the tail end of the mid-wing fence to allow the flaperon to rotate full up..

Width is 103.5"

[SomeDay7]

Thank you John as my order will be picked up in June and do want to trailer the STI. Another question was is the STI tail dragger actually 6' 10'' tall compared with the Super Sport listed as 5' 8'' on the site? Jim

[Shadowrider]

Hmmm... not sure what I said that was not true. As I stated earlier, "if you install the stall fences, you cannot fold the wings completely." The stall fences sent to us if installed as per the instructions you cannot fold the wings completely. Of course you can modify them to fold completely but would be a bugger to do after the fact once painted and installed. Just giving others builders a heads up so they can think ahead. John Moriarty gave us a heads up, he has a STI wing, before we installed the ones on Cory's since we are going in and out of a 10' wide garage. We are waiting to install them until at the airport. Just an FYI.

[Slice1969]

Thanks for clearing that up. If I couldn't fold the STi wing completely I'd be forced to go with a Highlander. I'd dread flying something that ugly! :)

[t j]

I learned when building my kitfox, if something doesn't look right, stop right there and get it figured out before you continue.

[Slice1969]

I have submitted my initial plans to a company that supplies trusses, and they submitted the ceiling plan with 24" vertical floor trusses that would give me 30' x 44' of completely open space in the shop. I'm afraid to ask what it is going to cost.

I did tell them I would be building an airplane, and it looks like the engineer has a sense of humor. :)

24670

[Shadowrider]

Your layout looks sweet! It’s going to save a ton of time not having to do the “wing shuffle”.

[Slice1969]

Your layout looks sweet! It’s going to save a ton of time not having to do the “wing shuffle”.

Thanks. It's going to be a multi-year process just to get the shop done.