Originally Posted by bearfoil;#1216
The damage to the vertical take up arm (the missing "end"), cannot have occurred without damage to the Hinge axis,
bearfoil;
I cannot claim to be particularly knowledgeable about structures, but some things would seem to me to be fairly obvious by just looking at the drawings so kindly provided by BEA. Take a look at the eight hinge brackets. Viewed from above, each is a triangular structure, the base of which is the rear spar of the V/S, and the top is the rudder hinge pivot. That structure is shaped to take loads perpendicular to the hinge line, and is very rigid with respect to these loads.
Now look at these brackets in side view, and you see just slender rods that are quite flexible with respect to loads acting along the hinge line, normal to the triangular planes. They can take a relatively large displacement in the direction of the hinge line without permanent deformation or failure. They are not intended to take any loads in that direction, because that function is exclusively assigned to the vertical load pick-up arm '36g', which is rigid in that direction and dimensioned to resist a load of 36 times the weight of the rudder. That arm fractured only locally but otherwise stayed in place, i.e. the overall geometry of the structure was not impaired, and the hinge brackets were therefore not subjected to significant deformation perpendicular to their plane. It is therefore only logical that these brackets show no sign of failure.
HN39