Originally Posted by
dubbleyew eight
god do you guys misunderstand things.
when a tiggie is flying the wing loads are borne by the flying wires alone.
the other wires actually go slack in flight.
two wires in parallel and one fails results in a sudden doubling of the load in the remaining wire which often fails it as well.
there is really no redundancy. if they work you live. if they fail the aircraft crashes and more than likely you die.
struts and flying wires are really the most important structural components on an aircraft.
That is what I would have thought. On the ground while sitting, landing wires are holding the wings from collapsing. In normal flight with all the lift being created under positive g, the flying wires are now doing the most work and under tension. I guess in turbulence, the landing wires come back into play(along with probably all the wires and struts). As stated earlier, the flying and landing wires are attached to fittings which are on the fuselage where the spars attach.
Then there are the incidence wires which I guess prevent twisting movements and also the unseen bracing wires between the forward and aft spars on each wing(or is it mainplane)to prevent fore and aft movement between struts.
And there are I believe four metal compression struts between the forward and aft spars in each wing keeping the proper spacing of spars and therefore shape of the wing.
And then there are the interplane struts which when sitting on the ground have the lower wing(which is supported by the landing wires) holding up the upper wing and while in flight(with the flying wires now providing the support for the upper wing) keeping the lower wing from moving up into the upper wing.
And then there is a double set of bracing wires forming the usual X-shape in front of the pilot. They are an excellent reference for staying straight for touchdown by aligning them. But I suspect the real reason for them being there is to help prevent rotational movement of the whole wing box structure as a complete unit.
Subject to any welcome corrections of course.