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kit revisions over time, do old sub kits still work?

B

Blw2

Well Known Member
I'm wondering historically...I suppose mainly for the more recent models anyway, how stable are the Van's designs and revisions?
I understand there is naturally always changes made as issues arise, slight tweaks in the design, dimensions of parts, or whatever.... things evolve...

What I'm getting at...if a builder buys a sub kit, say the tail, wings, or whatever...and piddlles at building that (work, kids, and life)... then a year or three years later retires and now has the time to really go with the project and then buys the next kit in the progression...has there ever been a situation with Van's where say for example the old tail kit won't fit well with the new fuse kit?
 
IMO I’d say the kits are quite stable. I wouldn’t worry too much about this.
 
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I hope not - almost 20 years between wing and fuselage kits! (All going well, no problems noted.). Also, some of the older SBs are incorporated into the newer kits, such as the tail cone stiffeners.
 
Agree with posts, I bought an older 7 kit and had some catch up to do on the SB's but that would have been needed regardless. The improvements are really improvements and things I had to discover and change are now part of the kits.

So- no worries, they always go together but get better with time - - Vans team is getting better too so you always have that going for you.

If you are building a 10 12 or 14 then they are literally two generations ahead of the previous ones, in every (good) way. Laser holes notwithstanding.
 
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There was some major redesigns in the RV-8 history. I believe most of them were backwards compatible. If you're looking at an original 90s vintage wing kit and matching it to a 2023 fuselage kit, probably best to ask Vans.
 
In the new kits the wing attachment holes to the centre section are CNC machined, so they aren’t matched to a specific centre section anymore.

However, if you have one of those wing kits the centre section should be with it, as they were sent together as a matched pair.

I would imagine it’s the same for most current RVs.

I also seem to remember there was a spar redesign at some point? Could be mixing that up with the -3B.
 
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Bought my tail kit in 1996, the finish kit in 2006 everything fit together.

Jonnyb said:
I also seem to remember there was a spar redesign at some point?
Click to expand...

Yes, on the -8 spar there was a redesign after the factory demonstrator was lost in an overstress accident. Old wings (like mine) have an aerobatic gross weight of 1550 lbs, newer ones have 1600.
 
bifft said:
Yes, on the -8 spar there was a redesign after the factory demonstrator was lost in an overstress accident. Old wings (like mine) have an aerobatic gross weight of 1550 lbs, newer ones have 1600.
Click to expand...

That is not correct! The RV-8 spar/wing was not changed at all due the in-flight breakup of the factory demonstrator (N58RV). After the accident Van hired outside loads, stress, structures, and flutter consultants who thoroughly evaluated the design. In addition, Van's purchased a set of wings from a builder who was selling his partially completed kit. Those representative builder-built wings were then static load tested to 9 g's with no failure. This was the second static load test of the RV-8 wings, the first was the testing Van's did originally for the design. No design or manufacturing fault was found, and no changes were made to the RV-8 wing at that time. Van actually wrote all this up in detail and here is the link to the article:


From the article:

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Later however, the RV-8 wings were modified (the so-called "Dash One" wings) for commonality with the RV-7 wings (Remember, the RV-7 came out several years after the RV-8) . This did lead to a 50 lb increase in the Aerobatic Gross Weight of the RV-8s with the "Dash One" wings (from 1550 pounds to 1600 pounds), but no increase in the recommended Gross Weight of 1800 pounds. Note that at the recommended Gross Weight of 1800 pounds, the RV-8 (and RV-7) is stressed for the Utility Category g-limits of +4.4g/-2.2g.
 
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Thanks for sharing the article, I hadn’t read the write up on the testing vans did after the accident.
 
You can always look on the drawings to find the Revisions (R# lines above the Title Block on the lower right corner) that have been made. If you get the latest plans, versus an older set that came with an early kit, you can see what has changed. Many of the changes are simply corrections and clarifications, updated dimensions, changed part numbers, or adding of alternate methods of construction.
I would also definitely take a look at all of the Service Bulletins and make sure those are incorporated in each kit as you build.
 
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