The all-nighters have started as D-day for Sling 4 ATW approaches at the speed of light. Although the prototype ATW Sling 4 won’t be making an appearance at Virginia, the Sling 4 launch at 10h00 on Tuesday 19 July is a fixed date and she’ll leave for Oshkosh the next day or as soon thereafter as she’s ready. (There will, nevertheless, be a number of other standard Slings on show at Virginia).
Meanwhile, work at The Airplane Factory is reaching a crescendo. Yesterday Jean and Ruan put in a marathon session, each working for 31 continuous hours. The fuselage team worked until after midnight last night, but had the satisfaction of seeing the fuselage from firewall to tail in one continuous piece. They’re back on the job today with the objective of getting her on her undercarriage with the engine on by tomorrow morning. Ryall’s working non-stop on the Perspex for the canopy and the wing team is just surveying its work before beginning to polish them up for final fitment.
Probably the most eloquent expression of where we are right now is some photographs all, save for the shot of Jean and Ruan at the commencement of a 15 hour non-stop laminating session which was taken at about 22h00 last night all of the shots below were taken an hour ago at 13h00 today, Wednesday 13 July 2011.
Meanwhile, on the side, ZU-FNM, our Cape Town agent, Mark Bunning’s Sling, will fly later today under a proving flight authority and ZU-FNN, David Jang’s Sling has an authority to fly and is ready for delivery.
Til next time – The Airplane Factory Team
