Sometime around 2000 I enquired of PFA Engineering about the possibility of
cutting down the centre tunnel (on a Classic) in the vertical plane at the
same time as carrying out a taildragger conversion.
I was informally told they might not be too happy about that because they
weren't sure the front fuselage would be strong enough to cope with a very
heavy landing with engine now hung a long way in front of the attachment
point for the front wheels (the deeper the tunnel is the stronger a beam it
makes, vertically).
Evidently a Europa had suffered a wrinkled front fuselage some time before
that in a heavy arrival incident.
Much more in-service experience since then, of course.
John Cliff
#0259
|