I just acquired an unfinished DE project (complete with a legal set of plans) from New Jersey; the wings are completely built; I haven't yet inspected them against the drawings, but I intend to.
The basic steel-tube fuselage and the tail feathers have been cut, fitted, and tack-welded in place--a few "finished" welds have been made, but they are not good quality, so I will grind and re-weld them properly. (I am a long-time aircraft homebuilder, beginning in 1968; I am proficient at aircraft welding. Anybody that is interested is welcome to visit my website sportaviationspecialties.com; the Gallery page shows a few of the airplanes I've been involved with over the last 50+ years. In addition, I am a longtime engineer, A&P Mechanic, and an FAA DAR certificating amateur-built and light-sport aircraft). I have inspected the fuselage and tail feathers to the plans and have found them to be very close to the dimensions shown.
I would like the completed airplane to have folding wings. I've studied the online photos of the Cabin Eagle and it seems that it would be fairly easy to remove the stock tack-welded DE wing support structure and install a center section support structure similar to the CE (I'm not interested in enclosing the cabin--I would simply like the wings to fold). From the photos, I can visualize the mechanism of the aft spar wing pivot fitting. And I can see that, unlike the Double Eagle, the Cabin Eagle has both the forward and aft wing struts coming together at the bottom and attaching to the aft fuselage fitting (similar to the Cessna 140 I restored). I'm assuming that folding the wings requires complete removal of the wing struts.
So, I'm seeking the group's opinion as to the practicality and wisdom of incorporating the wing folding mechanism (preferably from those who have already done so) and how I could obtain the necessary Cabin Eagle design details.
Thanks very much! Mike Huffman
