The turtle deck is the assembly of stringers which round the top of the fuselage behind the pilot cockpit. This picture was taken in the WACO factory 28 June 1926, within days of my plane leaving the factory. They have a lot of planes being assembled. There are some of the turtle decks hanging on the far wall.
On the plane in the bottom left, there are some little blocks of wood at the forward ends of some of the stringers. When I first saw these on my plane I thought they were a repair, but there they are, in the factory, in the exact same positions. More on these later.The turtle deck on my plane is damaged a little but not bad for something that's 98 years old.
An interesting little item is the hole in the lower right corner, behind the pilot. I have a newspaper article from 1929 when they wired the plane with position lights powered by a dry cell battery. They flew it in the dark of night. Braver than me.
The trim piece along the edge of the cockpit is a piece of Hide-A-Tack welting, also call Tack Hidem. Because of all the Model A Fords, it's still available. It gets tacked on through the sewn gap in the middle and covers the tacks holding the fabric covering in place.
The front plywood cover piece is flush with the top of the stringers, which all stick up 1/8" above the formers.
So here are those little wood blocks. They provide places to install wood screws to attach the cockpit cowling
The blocks are each nailed to the former with 2 long aircraft nails. There is no evidence of glue used anywhere on the turtle deck. The blocks are hand shaped on the top so they don't poke out under the fabric covering.
The ends of the second former originally rested on the top of the upper longerons.
The 3rd former is also plywood and rested on the longerons.
All stringers are attached to the formers with a diagonal nail into the plywood.
The 4th (aft) former is made of 5/8" thick spruce. The 2 side stringers are tipped at 30 degrees. The rest are vertical.
This former was not attached. The others were screwed to little steel tabs. The 2nd and 3rd formers hold the stringers such that they put about a 1/2" sag in the stringers helping to hold the aft end down. I used a straight line in this area of my 1927 photo of the plane and the sag is really there.
The stringers are tapered for the last 6", to a height of 5/8", flush with the former.
There are 6 tabs for mounting the plywood formers, welded to the upper longerons. They are made of .050" steel, 3/4" x 1-1/4". They have a curved bottom to fit the 1" dia. longerons and are welded only on the aft side.
For the 2nd former the tabs are tipped so the holes are 23" center to center, and located 1/4" forward of the forward edge of the cross tube.
For the 3rd former the tabs are tipped so the holes are 17" center to center, and located 3/8" forward of the forward edge of the cross tube.
I've taken the turtle deck off the fuselage and have it downstairs in our embroidery shop. I really didn't understand how long this thing is. It's 1-1/2" short of 7 feet.