Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been on at me again to reduce my use of cable-ties and so I have reverted to the age-old RC modellers method of securing things (like wings in their case) with rubber-bands.
Did you ever wonder why so many model aircraft had (a) high wings and (b) bands to secure them? Well principally so they can be added as a unitary part in a place clear of undercarriage and so forth, and where they're less likely to snap during crashes that regularly feature.
Airliners don't have wings attached with rubber-bands, but did you ever wonder why so few of them feature high-mounted wings aside from the (defunct) Bae 146?
Well wings are cantilevered around the edges of a big box (called the wing-box) that ideally fits under the cabin floor, where it is used to store fuel and provide support for the landing gear.
Trying to include it at ceiling-height in an airliner, a space devoted to (a) your head as you walk the aisle and (b) cabin-baggage lockers, is set to fail from the get-go. Both turbo-props I flew had high-mounted wings, so neither needed much in the way of undercarriage; but none of the jets.
That is not a consideration with jet airliners, that require long legs for the clearance required of turbofans and to allow for rotation around their middle for take-off and landing... especially as they keep stretching them.
Who knew that stretched bands and stretched fuselages had so much in common?
Can you see the rubber-band, children?
Thanks to the Co-Op round the corner for providing the rubber-bands for free... they also serve who only stand and wait behind the counter.
