Acroduster wings are built of wood. The design utilizes a web-and-capstrip wing rib design, using birch plywood rib "webs" enclosed by grooved 1/4" spruce capstrips. The ribs are glued together in a jig.
Remember, though, that the Starduster and Acrodusters have a rather elegant elliptical wing shape. This means that the ribs are going to end up being a lot of different sizes! Fortunately all ribs are the same size for all four wings. To build them, you first cut and build a wing rib jig to fit the smallest sized wing rib. Build four of these ribs. Then, enlarge the jig to fit the next-sized rib. Build four more. Complete the process until done!
There are nine fullsize ribs per wing on the Acroduster, for a
total of thirty-six. Add thirty one more noseribs, and you end
up with a lot of ribs! They actually took nearly six months to complete.
Lee McGee (lmcgee@sgi.com)