Cessna 172P - Page 127

CESSNA
MODEL
172P
SECTION
7
AIR,PLANE
&
SYSTEMS
DESCRIPTIONS
INTRODUCTION
This
section
provides
description and
operation
of the airplane and
its
systems.
Some equipment
described herein is optional
and
may
not be
installed in
the airplane.
Refer
to
Section 9, Supplements,
for details of
other optional
systems and equipment.
AIRFRAME
The
airplane is an all-metal, four-place, high-wing, single-engine
airplane
equipped with tricycle landing
gear
and designed for
general
utility
purposes.
The
construction of the fuselage is a
conventional
formed sheet
netal
bulkhead. stringer. and skin design referred to as semimonocoque. Major'
itens
of structure
are the
front and rear carry-through spars
to which
the
wings are attached.
a bulkhead and forgings
for main landing
gear
attachlnent at
the
base of the rear door
posts.
and a bulkhead
with attach
fittings
at the base of the forward
door
posts
for
the
lower
attachment of the
rving
struts. Four
engine
mount
stringers are also
attached
to the forward
cloor
posts
and extend forward
to
the
firewall.
The externally
braced wings,
contaÍning
the fuel
tanks. are
con-
structed
of
a front
and rear
spar with
formed
sheet
metal ribs, doublers. and
stringers. The entire
structure is
covered
with
aluminum
skin. The front
spars are equipped with
wing-to-fuselage
and
wing-to-strut ettach fit-
tings.
The aft spars
are equipped with
wing-to-fuselage attech
fittings. and
are
partial-span
spars.
Conventional hinged ailerons and single-slot
type
flaps are
attached
to
the
trailing
edge of the
wings. The ailerons are
constructed
of
a forward
spar containing balance weights, formed sheet
metel ribs and "V"
type
corrugated aluminum skin
joined
together at
the
trailing edge.
The
flaps
are constructed basically
the same
as
the ailerons.
with the exception
of
the
balance
weights and the addition
of a formed sheet
metal
leading edge
section.
The
empennage
(tail
assembly)
consists of
a
conventional vertical
stabilizer,
rudder,
horizontal
stabilizer,
and elevator.
The vertical stabiliz-
er consists of
a spar, formed
sheet metal ribs
and
reinforcements, a wrap-
around skin
panel,
formed
leading
edge skin and a
dorsal.
The rudder is
constructed of a
formed leading
edge skin containing hinge
halves, a
I
cenüer wrap-around
skin
panel,
ii¡s,
ãn aft wrap-arounã
skin
panel
which
is
joined
at
the trailing
edge
of the rudder by a filler
strip,
and a
ground
adjustable trim
tab at the base
of the traiting
edge. The top
of
the rudder
incorporates
a leading
edge
extension which contains
a balance weight,
3O
May
1980
7-',J