"Garrett Fulton" wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 4:06:56 PM UTC-5, Tom Gardner wrote:
On 11/21/2015 9:23 PM, Garrett Fulton wrote:
Do you know what they use to swing those wings? It's a thermal
wax
that expands and contracts with temperature. The forces are
HUGE!

Tom, do you have a website where this is described? I'm having a
hard time believing it. I'm a retired airline mech. and never
worked
on any swing wing aircraft. Just all the big Boeings, Airbus,
Lockheed etc. I did a google search and came up with nothing.



I heard it from a cousin working for Loral aerospace as a design
engineer, now retired, he worked on many cool projects, a lot of
which
will never see daylight. Wax motors are more common than we think.
I
couldn't easily find any direct references, but I'll ask next time
I
talk to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_motor

I believe we're talking about wax pellet temperature sensors. Those
are common on older airliners. Just my .02, but I don't believe you
could get any useful work from a wax motor actuator.


http://rostravernatherm.thomasnet.co...mal-actuators?