Warbird Information Exchange

Was there ever a problem with the wings on a TBM Avenger failing? If so what was it caused by?

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In the early days, they pulled the wings off of some airframes. The early models had a longer stick which allowed for rapid aileron deflections which caused some failures. All of the current flying aircraft have a shorter stick installed.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

I belive that there is also a mandatory spar inspection on the outboard wing panels. For a while the a/c used in fire bombing had a problem with corrosion in the spars due to the combination of retardant and condensation/water mix and it migrating to inaccessable areas of the wings. You would have to make a pass though the AD database to be sure.

I understand the spar caps are prone to cracking if you do a lot of taxying with the wings folded.

that makes sense. Lot of force suddenly applied from the weight of that wing shoving down...

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Thanks everyone. I was doing some research for a friend who found some stories of TBM wings failing during flight.

Thanks again,
Nate

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