Changing the cabin top of the airplane
created a challenge, the ability to have gull wing doors went
away. The angle was wrong, the distance was wrong, and the doors
wouldn't open like they used to. The solution was to get seriously
funky. Sort of like this:
The picture is extra big so you can
make sense of the details. The door is in 2 pieces. The main door
is where you normally expect to see it, and then there is a 2nd
small triangular door at the top left of the main door which also
can hinge up when the main door is out of the way. The back of
the main door now clears the wing leading edge.
The small door can hinge up out of
the way, and when up, it is held in position by a small flexible
spring which pops into column. To close the door, pop the spring
back out of column. The small door is trapped in place behind
the large door and works quite well. Besides, in warm weather
they can be removed in less than a minute and tossed in the cargo
area.
As you can also see, the air vents
are installed in the windshield directly overhead.
