Composite structures can put up with remarkable amounts of bending and twisting, but they don’t fair as well when being squeezed or poked. A group of us scratched our heads this morning as to how several dents had appeared in the top leading surfaces of the Vega wings, until it occurred that they corresponded with the position of one’s fingers when pushing the aircraft.
The apparently hard surface of the wings at this point is in fact only egg shell thick, beneath that is a layer of foam on a thin fibreglass substrate. When Andy opened up the worst damaged area, about 50 mm in diameter, further investigation showed the damage had extended to an area about 150mm in diameter. So this little dent turned out to be almost large enough to be recorded as a major repair.
So when pushing on the front of the Vega wings please place the palm of your hand on the leading edge and avoid any downward pressure on the wing skin.
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