1. The complete fuselage is now covered with fabric and all that remains are some finishing tapes to go around the door cut-outs and edges of the cockpit where the canopy attaches etc. We are very pleased with the finish we have achieved.

2. Work has also continued on the wiring and we have mounted the circuit breakers into the main breaker box and completed the terminations within that box. Most all of the box wiring is complete now and we will concentrate on the looms next month.

Woodwork

The team have completed the fabrication of the main elements of the front spar during April. The spar consists of a lower boom that is fully laminated from 12 laminations of approx. 1/2 thick spruce sheets. Following lamination into the correct shape to accommodate the dihedral the raw boom is machined on the edges to the correct dimension for the radical taper that exists in the Mossie wing. The top elements of the spar have also been fabricated, but by contrast with the lower boom, these are fairly simple and are made from much thicker sheet and only 3 laminations. The two booms, upper and lower, are held apart at various points along the wing with heavy laminated blocks. Finally the spar it made into a full box with front and rear webs in the form of heavy ply.

The wing ribs have been all but completed with only rib one to go. Rib one uses some of the very heavy ply that is being made in England at the moment, so cant be finished as yet. I have included a photo of rib #2 with the tip rib sitting on top. This shows the amount of taper in the wing.

One of pictures shows Mike machining the scarf joint into one of the rear spar lower boom laminates. This is the joint that means you can have a 54 foot long sheet!

The horizontal was finished also and delivered to us this month.