edge, made of sticks of white pine or other light-weight wood, and the ribs and tips on the ends made of No. 16 gauge aluminum wire. The ends of the frame sticks are cut away on their outer edge, to receive the ends of the wire forming the tips, and the ends of these wires, and the laps of the wire ribs, are bound in position with thread, and the thread then coated with glue to hold it in position.
The Elevator, or front plane, has a framework made as shown in Fig. 41. Its entering-edge is a stick, and its following-edge, ribs, and end tips, are made of No. 16 guage aluminum wire. You will notice by Fig. 41 that the center ribs cross the following-edge of the frame and are bent up in the form of a flat loop. This loop rests against the under side of the fuselage, and gives the elevator its proper angle for stability (Fig. 36). The tips are bent up to add stability.
The frames of the main plane and elevator are covered with china-silk, which may either be sewed or glued in place, and this is given a thin coat of shellac to make it air-tight and taut. The covering must be put on smoothly to reduce to a minimum what is known as skin resistance—the resistance that the plane makes to the air while passing through it.
The main plane and elevator are held to the fuselage by means of rubber-bands slipped beneath them and over the fuselage, and unlike the planes of the majority of models, are fastened to the under side of the fuselage. Figure 36 shows the approximate position of the elevator. That of
