What to build first: wings or fuselage

[Carlos Trigo]

Guys

Finishing my XENOS tail, I will move forward in a couple of months.

If you had to choose between building either the fuselage or the wings, which would you build first?
And why?

Thanks
Carlos

[Rynoth]

I think it mostly depends on how much space you have. The wings are (arguably) easier to store and take up less room in a rack. They do take a bit more room while building though, so not having a fuselage in the way can help. When done, you stick them against a wall and continue on the fuselage.

The wings are also "simpler", in a fashion, to build. Lots of repetitive work on similar-looking parts. The fuselage can get a lot more complex especially towards the end. So if you just want to hunker down and push forward building, my vote would probably be for wings first.

[Onex107]

I think it mostly depends on how much space you have. The wings are (arguably) easier to store and take up less room in a rack. They do take a bit more room while building though, so not having a fuselage in the way can help. When done, you stick them against a wall and continue on the fuselage.

The wings are also "simpler", in a fashion, to build. Lots of repetitive work on similar-looking parts. The fuselage can get a lot more complex especially towards the end. So if you just want to hunker down and push forward building, my vote would probably be for wings first.

On the Onex I did tail, fuselage, gear, engine, then moved the airplane to the airport and then did the wings. Why store something for a year. If you make any mistakes on the tail fins it's much less expensive than the wings. My wing skins were damaged in shipment and I didn't discover it until it was too late. Add another $400 to the price of the build. I built my Onex in my half of a two car garage. Limited storage room and it worked out great. 290 hours and flying.

[Bryan Cotton]

I built the tail, fuselage, and then wing. The wings for a Waiex are easy to store. That may be harder for a Xenos depending on your workshop. The fuselage gives you a psychological advantage that it starts looking like an airplane. There are plusses and minuses for either sequence. There is no wrong answer.

[XenosN42]

Guys

Finishing my XENOS tail, I will move forward in a couple of months.

If you had to choose between building either the fuselage or the wings, which would you build first?
And why?

Thanks
Carlos

For my Xenos I built the tail, fuselage, wings, panel and finally FWF in that order. I think that the Xenos fuselage is easier to build than the wings and building the fuselage first will give you some valuable skills and confidence before starting on the wings.

Whichever you decide just keep at it. Set aside some time everyday and enjoy the progress.

[bvolcko38]

I built tail, wings then fuse. Wings rt then lt and each one went up into the rafters of my garage to store. But that was me. I only had a two car garage to work in.

[scotttro]

I have a very small shop (going to have to cut a wall out to get the plane free) so I proceeded in the order of most "storable": control surfaces, wings, fuselage. Surfaces went into the rafters, wings against the wall, fuse is now in the middle of everything. This has the added advantage of pushing the costs of engine and avionics down the road a bit, and provided time to look for "deals". One caveat: make sure you place the finished pieces such that they won't be too near the action - I managed to smack the leading edge of a wing pretty good with an unwieldy jig. Upside to that, though, it ended the "polish or paint" debate!

[racaldwell]

Carlos,

I built the tail, wings and finishing up the fuselage now. I built both wings at the same time side by side. That way I wouldn't forget what I learned on the first part and did the mirror image without needing to refer to plans or restart the thought process of what needs to be done. I am building in the back of my tee hangar at the Melbourne airport and it is getting crowded with two RV's and a Xenos project shoehorned in. At least everything is on wheels.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057

[Carlos Trigo]

Thanks for your answers guys

It seems that the decision is more related with space to build, which fortunately is not my problem.

I am looking for technical reasons on what to build first, wings or fuselage, more related to the design of this airplane, and to the building process and the interdependence of the connections between them, like for example the connection between the fuselage and the wings main spar.
Or the connections between fuselage and wings for the ailerons and spoilers control systems.

Do you have an opinion on these issues?

Thanks
Carlos

[Bryan Cotton]

Carlos,
I can not think of a technical reason to pick one over the other.