On Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 10:26:06 PM UTC-5, Tom Gardner wrote:
On 11/22/2015 7:14 PM, Garrett Fulton wrote:
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.
As it happens, he called me tonight to wish happy holidays. When I
asked him about the wax motors he said they aren't on any production
aircraft. So I apologize, I thought they were on aircraft we all would
know about. It seems they also use them on missiles and torpedoes due
to weight to force ratios and they are very precise in temp to movement.
I wish I knew more but I understand they are very powerful. Why do
you think they wouldn't do work?
Not that I think they don't work, just not in an application like an actuator for something that required large displacement like swinging the wings of an aircraft. Mr. Wilkins posted a couple of applications here that show their actual use. If I remember correctly, the 727 had a strictly mechanical sensor that prevented icing of the water coalescer bag in the air cycle cooling systems. Believe that was a wax pellet sensor. If it went bad, you'd hear the blowout bypass door banging and relieving pressure on the frozen bag.