Originally Posted by bearfoil
... and the teensy little tip of Arm36g pops off.(...) The Rudder at the speed necessary to destroy the sub structure would have rippled, torn free of everything, and the hinges would be toast.
Look at the Hinge stack on the Rudder's articulating edge. They are conformal, appear to be ready for a change of airframe
bearfoil, as I explained earlier, an inertia force exerted by the rudder on its hinges parallel to the hinge line doesn't result in a bending moment on the 'hinge arms', unless you remove 'arm 36 g'. There is no visible damage in the hinge arms because 'arm 36 g' stayed in place, except for 'the teensy little tip'. A tensile force in 'arm 36 g' results in a compression force in the associated hinge arm. That arm is designed for that load, and it would be highly coincidental for both structural members to fail at exactly the same loading condition. Likewise, the rudder didn't 'ripple' because, like the hinge brackets, it is designed for 36 g, which was not greatly exceeded otherwise 'arm 36 g' would have failed completely.
On the other hand, if you suspect large aerodynamic loads on the rudder, due to control inputs, sideslip angle or flutter, wouldn't those have damaged at least some of the 'hinge arms'?
regards,
HN39