Europa Flyer Mag.
Karl Heindl wrote:
> Are you sure the fork is made of cast iron ?
That was the other undocumented change. ;-) Nah, it has the same look
and feel as cast iron, and it weighs almost as much. ;-) I was not
entirely serious. ;-)
Nevertheless, it doesn't appear that someone tried to design it with a
high strength/weight ratio in mind.
Just compare it with the amount of material and weight of the main gear.
The main gear has an axle supported on just one end, with a leg barely
thicker than the axle itself. Now look again at the nose wheel. Weird
isn't it? It looks like the designer thought that the nose wheel was
going to do all the hard the landing work, and the main gear was just
there to prevent the plane from falling on its side after the landing. ;-)
The whole nose wheel assembly is definitely one of the less well
developed area's of the Europa, just like the area of the cowl right
above it. It looks like the original designer worked from the tail to
the nose, and at about reaching the firewall, he just had enough of it,
and delegated the rest of the design to someone else.
--
Frans Veldman
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