Double Eagle Wing Rib Dimensions

[Free wing]

I'm wondering is it normal to have the inner distance between the front and back spars as little as 23", also the full wing chord is 44", though I bought my plans very recently (April 2026), also spar dimensions are missing. May someone guide me what to do to correct that

[Kamcoman77]

Distance between front & rear spar faces is closer to 27.5" for all the Eagles. Wing chord including nose ribs is 54" to 55" depending on whose rib drawing you use. No spar dimensions on your plans means you are missing some pages, or you do not have genuine Double Eagle plans.

[Free wing]

That's weird, I bought my plans couple of days ago, It has 107 pages, I'm attaching few images here as well for the rib measurement, and serial number.

[Free wing]

Here also the page that misses the spar width, as well as the distance between spares measurements, I'm really confused I even checked the A4 paper size, now I'm not really sure what shall I do.

[Kamcoman77]

The pieced together rib drawing has been an issue for a lot of builders, DE, LEU & XL. It is best to get the full-size, one-piece rib drawing from Leonard. Attached is a photo of an XL rib. The main difference between the XL rib and the DE is the thickness of the wing spars. All the spars on an XL are 3/4" wide (front to back) spruce caps plus a 1/8" ply doubler on one face. This gives a 7/8" wide opening for the rear spar (plus room for epoxy).

[Free wing]

I really appreciate your help. But don't you agree that it's not a quarter here or there it's a real threat a wing 10" narrower isn't a mistake. In the modern days it should be easier than ever to make an accurate printable plan. We should think what is the real cost of having this misleading instructions.

[Kamcoman77]

I decided to use a wing rib drawing from IronDesigns. It is full size and I did not have any issues with it or understanding Leonard's XL plans. I don't think IronDesigns has any DE drawings. I have an older set of DE plans, but I have not studied them carefully. While building parts of my XL, I found it was very important to read and re-read the instructions as I was deciphering the plans drawings. This saved me from making a lot of parts that would later need to be modified, if I had paid more attention to exactly how the part fit. One example is wing ribs. If you make all of them the same, you will have to go back and "unmake" parts of them. If you note the differences in gussets and doublers while making the ribs, you will save a lot of time. Attached is a drawing with notes I made for myself as I was building my XL ribs and wings. My drawing may not help, but it shows many areas where ribs are not identical.

[Kamcoman77]

Here is a photo I've doctored to hopefully clarify the fact that 1/8" needs to be cut off the front vertical on all DE ribs. This because the front spar is 1" thick (7/8"+ ply web) and the LEU and XL spars are only 7/8" thick. The overall length of the DE, LE, & XL ribs are supposed to be the same 55" (54" + 1" TE) since they all use the same airfoil and drawing from Leonard. I still think it important for you to get Leonard's 1-piece rib drawing.

[Free wing]

That really makes the width and length issue simple I appreciate that, now I'm facing another issue which is the hight as well as the doubt are the other dimensions correct for example the fittings and tail.

To be honest I feel really bad about having a plan missing such important details while there could be a lot of ways to address it otherthan having a hard copy.
For example XY coordinations table. Or even simpler, they can scan the plan on a scanning machine ticking the keep original size option for both US and WW A4 paper size.

[Kamcoman77]

I have a set of printed DE plans #G-58, not the downloaded version. Just thumbed through them. There is a lot of info on most every page, but some of it almost hidden. The pieced together wing rib comes out as an almost perfect match with my XL wing rib drawing from Leonard (it should). All the fuselage and tail dimensions look good on my plans, although some info about tubing size and wall thickness on one page is not duplicated on others (and should be). I would feel very comfortable building an airplane from my plans. I do agree with you that modern plans, drawn with more detail would be nice, but I don't believe that most of the plans pages have changed since first published.

[Kamcoman77]

Just found a relatively new video about a DE completed in 2025.     EAA Chapter 1531 members built it. Perhaps you could get in touch with their president and have a lot of questions answered by someone who built a DE. Not many have ever been completed.