Folks,
At the risk of oversimplification:
1-Almost all aircraft have washout towards the tips.
2-At a high enough IAS, the AoA towards the tips will become negative, inducing a downwards bending load.
3-Wings are generally designed for a greater positive load than negative, therefore it takes less downward bending (-)for a wing to fail than upwards (+)
4-Therefore you can calculate the theoretical speed in a dive, at which the wings of an aircraft in trim will fail in downwards bending.
5-Add all the complications of turbulence etc., and that speed may not be all that fast.
6-I have a vague memory of several strutted Cessna singles breaking up this way, with the wings failing just outboard of the struts, and failing more or less symmetrically, as we have had with two AC500S.
Know your AFM Limitations, and stick to them.
Tootle pip!!
PS: have a look at:
<http://www.casa.gov.au/airworth/papers/AeroCommander.pdf>
Indeed, the factory did say that there were spars built of lousy material, once the problem was discovered.
Last edited by LeadSled; 19th Oct 2007 at 11:53.