Carbon Fiber Leading Edge?

[jrevens]

There was a company here in Colorado making a carbon fiber airplane patterned after something like a Swift or maybe a Falco... I don’t remember. It was a vey impressive and sophisticated design. Our EAA chapter had a tour of their factory. It was a first class operation and involved several engineers as I recall. Anyway, the point is that they went to great lengths in the design to keep aluminum and carbon fiber structure conductively separated to prevent corrosion. They even used very expensive special fasteners (titanium?) almost exclusively, as well as special coatings. It was quite a few years ago. The linked article stresses scratching of the aluminum surface by a pencil, but the graphite that can remain on the surface, even microscopically, is definitely also an important issue regardless of any scratching.

the Kitfox wing is relatively flexible and carbon fiber isn’t. That might or might not be an issue. One of the advantages of making the Laker leading edge out of a thin fiberglass laminate is flexibility. Making it in 2 separate pieces as they do probably helps to accommodate that, as well as thermal expansion and contraction. Of course it makes it easier to ship (& possibly manufacture as well?). The Laker leading edge is so thin that I wonder how much of a weight factor it would be compared to a carbon fiber one.

The Dark Aero video was very good!