Question regarding a wing part

Sico2 wrote:

Can anyone please explain me what is this little yellow part on the wing near speed brakes of most planes like B738/9, A319, B733 and others? It is usually 2inch wide, about 0.5 inch high it is yellow, with a hole inside usually looks like womans brests ;P I stil couldn't find answer for this. What is it and what does it do on a wing?

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/952913/M/

If you mean this litle think with the hole i guess without knowing something special that maybe its a help for apply a hook or something in order to move wings or the cover for ground operations.Wait if someone is know excactly about it...i only suppose.

Like Greekman suggested, I'd say it would be something to do with removing a part of the wing to inspect flap motors, or speed brake 'release' mechanisms etc. Could be completely wrong though

😉

I'm usually pretty good with things like this but this is a little obscure. I don't want to ruin my record but I will give it a try. I think that the small flange with hole(s) seen on large jet aircraft is to anchor an emergency line for the life rafts during an aircraft evacuation in the water. (ditching)

Doesn't this disturbe the airflow around the wing? The way it is attached indicates a pretty bad airflow(the wing with this part would look like this if yuo'd look at it from birdview)

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although it is really small and with a hole inside, but still. What the heck is this part for?!

Something that small and insignificant wouldn't disrupt airflow over a wing that size 😉

😕 Is this the same thing? ➡

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/806501/L/

If so it looks like somewhere to attach a hook,but not big enough to take the weight,so how about a guy line,to assist in positioning the wing during build
Or as CRJ Capt said to hook life rafts

Tom you are closest.....it does not look like much but it is a harness point and if memory serves me correctly it is used when fitting the wings during assembly.....or removing one after an accident!

pretty weird, so why not just removing it? It can be that a plane hase never any accident or no part of the wing has to be changed and still the part will be fixed? If you build concrete plates buildings, for example. you don't leave parts that were attached to the plates to be helpful to pick them up. In this case the same could be with stabilisers, fuselage parts or similar. And additionaly I think this is little bit to small to be able to hold all the wing weight. But maybe it is...

And additionaly I think this is little bit to small to be able to hold all the wing weight. But maybe it is...

If finally the reason is for removing the wing im sure that you have notice(if you have seen it in pics or in real life) or you can imagine ,that the hold points are not only this litle...keyhole...
To remove a wing with this dimensions is needed more than 6 points to hold (cause of its geometry)and they never hung it from hooks but they surge strong belts all over it in order to pull and also put whell stages under it and smoothly remove it.

Whats your thoughts about the usage of it???

well until now none. I thought one the beginning it was some aerodynamic feature like some little winglets on side of engines or similar, for better air flow, but it is little bit to small for me. If so many people say that I think this is it. 😎

I'm looking at the second picture here ➡ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/806501/L/

As there are fuel tanks inside the wings there must be pipes and cables and what not to make it all work. Maintenance comes to mind. If any of the innards of a wing have to be repaired, I doubt that even the slimmest of the maintenance crew will be able to crawl inside. Maybe those oval looking hatches are used to gain access to whatever is hidden inside those wings?

yeah maybe it is, but who will be sure about it answer.. any pilots.. nope? 😂

Anonymous wrote:

yeah maybe it is, but who will be sure about it answer.. any pilots.. nope? 😂

If you really die to know about it get in Boeing or Airbus sites and dive into the manufacturing procedures(if they publish something like that)...maybe you can find something...Google is a lso a good source of infos. 😉

Ive been thinking about this all day and I will stick with my 1st guess and add that if they take a wing off,they dont just unbolt it and let it drop to the floor,they would use some sort of frame and this little hook keeps the wing in postion,in the frame

The yellow 'eyes' on top of the wings are for securing life-lines running from the top and inside of the over-wing emegency exits.

Their purpose is to guide the passengers away from the fuselage far enough past the first engine which may still be running after an emergency landing.

In a water landing, they can also be used as mooring points for the supplementary life rafts that are carried on some aircraft in addition to the life-rafts/slides automatically deployed from the door exits. Should the aircraft suddenly sink, a knife is attached to the line inside the life-raft.

Mad Brit where do youget this info from? I do not think it is 100% accurate...certainly the part about the knife!
Knife on board whether it is in the raft or not would not be acceptable after 9/11 as these are still accessible certainly on a 737. I will get the answer tomorrow from the ground engineers.

Sorry but the 'eyes' on the wing have absolutely nothing to do with removing or replacing the wings.

Try this:

http://img40.imageshack.us/my.php?image=liveline3fb.jpg

and this:

ATA 25-66 FLOATATION & SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT

Life Line Description

Life lines assist passengers evacuating the aircraft to remain on the wings after ditching. The life lines are installed in the hatracks adjacent the emergency exits (FR 3😎 left and right. Life line installation points are yellow in color for easy identification and located as follows:

- inside each emergency exit hatch recess (top forward corner of the FWD exit; top rear corner of the AFT exit) and accessible only after the exit hatch is removed,

- on the upper surface of each wing, approximately above the outer limit of the engine nacelle

Life Lines

If an emergency occurs and the aircraft ditches, you must remove the exit hatches and install the life lines. Snap hooks connect the lines to the installation points, they are located at each end of the life lines. You can tighten the life lines after installation when you pull on the tabs at the two sliding buckles.

As for the knife, it is an integral part of the life-raft and survival kit, along with a few other 'nasty' things like flares, and can only be accessed after the raft has been inflated (outside the aircraft). 🙄

You are obviously talking about Airbus aircraft and not Boeing which is what I was referring to. My apologies for misleading you all but in my defence it was info I had received 7 years ago and simply remember "wing and maintainance" put 2+2 and made 5.
On the 737Cl series the "loop" is fitted for the engineers to attach a safety line to during work on the wing.
You are correct that on an Airbus and possibly Boeing-NG there is a cable (never used!) that is attached to this loop as a guide (also used to attach rag slides if the wing slide does not deploy) for passengers in an evac. All this info provided by ground engineers as well as my missus who served 12 years as crew on both Boeing 757/767 and more recently on the Airbus 320 family.
In the interest of security as you never know who reads these posts an important point to be added is that the survival kits referred to are stored externally and are not accessable onboard.

Thanks for that PH.

I wasn't talking about any specific manufacturer. Boeing aircraft have them too although on some wings they are fold down 'D' rings and are not so visible. They will still have a yellow ring around them for easy identification.

Go to airliners.net and do a picture search for all 'Boeing' aircraft types and 'wing'. There are plenty of pictures where the loops can be seen.

The safety procedures include their use for over-wing evacuation but in reality they would probably not be used. Some airlines have special instruction cards for passengers sat in over-wing emergency exit seats that show how the life-lines are to be attached. I'm not so sure the first passenger through the exit is going to stop to attach them though.

On some aircraft types the rings are also used by maintenance but on others they are designed to snap away if the aircraft sinks and a life-raft is attached, so not a good idea for maintenance to use them.

well, I think we have the answer right now... 🙂