The design report

As mentioned earlier, the longerons and the centre plate stoped at the third last rib of
the fuselage. Initially, there was no carbon rod running through the back section of the
fuselage and it was only connected with the centre plate, longerons and the top plate.
The team found that the design was a bit flimsy as the back part of the fuselage was
really weak. Carbon rod was added to provide extra strength to the tail section of the
fuselage. This was when an extra rib was added to sandwich the brown block that
connects the carbon rod to the rest of the back section. Carbon rod was chosen because
it was light in weight and it was also very strong. Like the rest of the fuselage ribs that
were connected to the top plate, these back ribs also have locking gaps.
Figure 4.1.209: The back section of the fuselage that connects to the horizontal tail.
As can be seen from figure 4.1.208 and figure 4.1.209, there are two plates on the back
of the fuselage. The second plate is to let the little brown horizontal tail connection
block to sit on. There were two holes going right through the blocks and plates for to
bolts to go through. Since the whole aircraft had to be detached, nuts and bolts were
used to connect the horizontal tail to the fuselage. The second plate also has a role in
strengthening the back part of the fuselage.
There was no particular connection on the fuselage for the vertical tail as the vertical
tail was very small as the fuselage was very long, and the professor suggested that it
should be stuck on with only adhesives. Just to be on the safe side, tiny holes were made
in the fuselage to allow wires to go through to add on the connection of the vertical tail
to the fuselage.