Rear Landing Gear Truss Reinforcement

After I began to look over the Staggerwing's fuselage, I noticed what seemed to be a add-on reinforcement to the rear landing gear truss. To used my Dad's jargon, This look like a "shade-tree mechanic's" repair. I was worried that this was a questionable repair of this heat treated truss. I mentioned this to Hal Martin. He informed me that there were some factory reinforcements of this type done on the early Staggerwings.

When I was at the Beech Party in 2015, I went through the factory files of my Staggerwing. I was pleased to find a record of the reinforcement work dated Nov 1934.

This reinforcement consists of a 1" X 3/32" steel strap and a large turnbuckle to provide tension.

At the bottom end of the slide tube, the 1" strap is split into two 1/2" straps. The strap is clamped to the truss at this point.

The two 1/2" straps are twisted 90 degrees around the lower truss tube and bolted to the truss near the gear and flying wire attachment point.

The only other Staggerwing that I have seen which has this reinforcement is serial number 3. This photo is from the files on serial number 3 at the Beechcraft Heritage Museum.