Re: [COUPERS-TECH] Spars

[Sydney Cohen]

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Yes, Al, that's what I know for a fact.  Univair is not producing new wing attach fittings.  They require the customer to saw the old wing attach fittings from their old, unairworthy spar and send them in.  Univair magnifluxes the old wing attach fittings and cleans and paints them and then rivets them onto a new spar for that customer.  The $9K is for the new spar, not for an entire center section.  By the way, even though they own the type certificate for the airplane, they had to get a new production certificate from the FAA for the spar.

Syd



A DeMarzo wrote:

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So, Syd;

What you're saying is that you know for a fact that the tooling was gone, and regardless of the possibility of new tooling they had to deal with "spring back" of the metal and then the milling.  I would think that would be part of building the spar during the extrusion and if need be, re-engineering it.  I'm not too sure that any manufacturer (Univair is the manufacturer) must prove to the FAA that what they build meets the original design.  It may even be that if necessary (outside of the normal inspections) it would not be in their best interests to attempt to prove the design is better, but that stuff, even though it sounds logical, isn't the way the feds think and I wouldn't expect anyone outside the industry to understand that.  Does the $9K include the center section or just the spar?  If it's an entire center section, it's a bargain.

 

What interests me is when you mentioned that they reuse wing attachments.  Although that move nominates the decision maker for a Darwin award, what's the procedure?  (Do they really put 60 year old stressed parts onto a new $9K part?)  Do you send them the old spar with fittings and they reinstall them?  Regardless of how they got to the manufacturing point, you're probably on target about the loot invested IF they're doing it in-house and not farming it out, which hasn't been mentioned.  They'll probably see a return after about a dozen are sold.  I pretty much have faith that they'll do it within a few years, especially when more and more of the problems arise.  And as far as used spars, well, I think in a few years they may not be desirable any longer.

 

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