Leading Edge Tape on Dr.I’s

Laserlloyd · 27 May 2008, 05:35 PM

Hi Dan-San:

Sorry I haven't had time to post the other photos. Taz did show me his photo he has but I let him post it since it's his. I know of a couple of samples that I can post of the Rib tape, I will make close ups of them and post them soon.

Quote:

Please explain to me why you think it is black?

You are the color expert so I you say it's green then thats fine by me, I was just saying I'm still not sure if it was the green or if it was black." because I can't tell if it Black, Green, Red or dark Blue. To me it it's just shades of gray

Quote:

For what purpose, nothing is done without a purpose, what purpose?

Ture, what is the purpose of this. Taz made a suggestion that it was either "used as a demarcation line" or "to close off the seam and prevent airflow from separating the leading edge stitches." What do you think it was used for?

Quote:

Is it required by IdFlieg?

Don't know, then again Fokker didn't alway adhere to what the IdFlieg lay out, just look at the cross fields on the Dr.I. I think one time you told me that you had a copy or part of the IdFlieg requirements. Let say that the Dr.I's didn't have the leading edge tape but the D.VII's did, was there any IdFlieg order for this on the D.VII's?

Lloyd...

Taz · 27 May 2008, 08:14 PM

Dan-San- Which photo is that?

Taz
Terry Phillips

Dan_San_Abbott · 28 May 2008, 12:26 PM

Lloyd:
I concurr, I dont see any leading edge taping on the Fok.DR.I wings. And yes the leading edge on the Fok.D.VII was taped as were the ribs and all edges.
The Dr.I wing the finished leading edges werepainted with the olive paint used for the streaking. I can't find chord-wise seams on the wings, so I have concluded the wings were covered span-wise. If the foled leading edge seam faced the trailing edge, 1. it would be difficult to see, and 2. The air would flow over the seam and not impinged against it. I did this on sky-diving competion parachute canopies, to reduce the interference drag, and makes for a smoother airflow.
The narrow tapes on the wings of the Fok.F.I triplanes are 10mm wide linen tapes through which the fabric is tacked to the rib. They are not rib tapes per-se.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Dan_San_Abbott · 28 May 2008, 12:34 PM

Taz:
I am not trying to be controversal, you had reference a photo or photos that show rib taping on the Fok.DR.I wings. If they are available, I would like to see these photos. The rib taping makes sense, my problem is I have not seen a photo were I can identify rib taping on the Fokker Triplane wings. If the ribs are taped the edges of the tape should be visible. There was not that much dope and paint on the wings to conceal the edges of the tapes.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

SCMc · 28 May 2008, 04:36 PM

Taz posted this in the Application of printed fabrics thread. The photo appears to show a rib tape darkened with oil on the middle wing.

Steve

Laserlloyd · 28 May 2008, 04:57 PM

SCMc

That's not the photo, Taz has a photo of I think one of his sample fabrics pieces that shows the tape. I do have one of these photos he shared with me but this is from his private collection and only he can post this.

I'm almost done going thou my photos an will post what I have hopefully tonight.

Lloyd...

otto · 29 May 2008, 04:22 AM

The dark line on the Dr.I leading edges seems to me something more than a camouflage refinement work. Could it be a tape or a painted line applied to detect wing warping? Early triplanes suffered from wing failure, and this line appeared starting from about 217/17.
Otto

Laserlloyd · 29 May 2008, 09:18 AM

Going thou lots of photos I can see images that shows faint lines but the image is either to grainy or just out of focus. These seem consistent with the presents of a rib tape since the rib cap strip is only 6mm wide and what I'm seeing is about 20mm wide.

Here are some photos that are a little clearer that shows the rib tape.

Photo no. 8 (All photos here are courtesy of Terry Phillips and Peter Grosz, thanks for your help…)

This is the right-side top wing crossfield of 404/17 that you can see the rib tape on the left-side of the cross and in the center were paint has chipped away the edge of the tape and one more right of the crossfield. This can also be seen in the sample that Lagdon had posted before of 425/17 top crossfeild held at AWM.

Photo no.9

Here is the top left side crossfield of 404/17 with the rib tape shown on the right side of the cross.

Photo no.10

This is the lower wing of 425/17 showing the rib tape on the top surface. This photo does blur the edges of the tape zooming in on it.

Photo no.11

This is the front view of the lower wing of 425/17. The rib tape can be seen around the leading edge. Since the leading edge had plywood sheeting wrapped around the leading edge this is not the cap strip on the ribs. Also notice the width of the tape, approximately 20mm wide.

Photo no.12

This shows the rib tape on the lower wing of an unknown Dr.I. This is probably the clearest one I have that you can actually see the edge of the rib tape.

Lloyd...

Dan_San_Abbott · 29 May 2008, 07:17 PM

Lloyd:
Rib tapes were about 25 mm wide, purpose of the rib tapes is to protect and cover the stitching of the fabric to the fabric strip that is glued/doped to the rib faces.
The tapes you are illustrating are about 10mm wide and they would not cover a up the rib stitching. I have a hunch that Fokker has may have use a 10mm linen tape on top of the fabric and stitched over/through it and the fabric to the rib fabric strip and secured the fabric in that manner. It is not rib tape in the common term. This method was employed when tacking the fabric to the ribs. Tacks were most likely use on the leading edge portion that has the plywood covering, in this area you cannot sew the fabric to the rib.
blue skies,
Dan-San

womenfly2 · 30 May 2008, 05:17 AM

Hi Dan, a question for you. How was the fabric attached to the rib were the box spar was? Was it tacked?

Also, so I understand, in your statement above, are you saying that the fabric was first stitched to the fabric strip attached to the rib blank then finished with a 25 mm wide strip of fabric doped over the stitching and tacks to protect them?

..... and the 10 mm strip you are talking about would be the same as today on modern aircraft, rib reinforcement tape? and this is what is showing in the pictures posted? Is that correct?

Just curious,
WF2

Very interesting topic guy's!