Mini-IMP Aircraft Company

Fuselage

The Mini-IMP fuselage has 3 main bulkheads.  The front, or “nosewheel”, bulkhead carries the nosewheel, rudder pedals and nosewheel “box”.  The rear of this “box” carries the instrument panel and the floorboards attach to its sides.  The instrument panel is so arranged as to have a center panel and two side panels in order to give more room for radios and instruments.  These side panels and center panel attach to two basic structural angle panels which form the structural sides of the fuselage, as well as the arm rests, seat support, and mount for the flight controls and landing gear control system.  A modest baggage space behind the seat (which tilts forward for access) provides the structural attachment to the main bulkhead. 

The second main bulkhead carries the wing above it, the engine behind it, and the main landing gear beneath it.  The wing is attached with two basic fittings which have been statically tested to 14 g loading (at 900 pounds gross weight).  Even then, these fittings did not fail catastrophically, but merely bent slightly.  Since the engine, pilot, fuel, and landing gear are all attached to this single component, the basic structural simplicity of the Mini-IMP is obvious.

The top of the engine compartment aft of the main bulkhead is a tension web which takes the normal down loads on the tail.  This web is suitably strengthened for negative loads which might be imparted in aerobatic flight.  The tail “boom” consists of a flat-wrapped sheet metal cone structure which uses 2 identical skin halves. The tail skin together with sheet metal channels at top and bottom, as well as 4 standard angle extrusions to stiffen the cone, carry the thrust loads of the propeller, and provide adequate attachment of the inverted “V” tail surfaces.  The two tail surfaces are attached to the tail cone through aluminum plate attachment fittings which in turn bolt to a semi-bulkhead for the front stabilizer spar and a ring bulkhead for the rear stabilizer and elevator-hinge spar.

There are no welded fittings other than the engine mount (which is available pre-manufactured).  While the entire aircraft is designed for an ultimate load factor of 6 g’s, it is apparent that the structure will obviously accommodate even higher loading, although this might be very difficult to accomplish, even deliberately.

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