Wassat?

Cool looking doodad . . .

Micarta sleeve bearing

This is a bearing for an aileron. It is a simple structure that provides rotation (sleeve bearing), and reinforcement for the tube that rotates inside. The micarta is attached somewhere on an aileron, and our best guess so far is shown below.

As the aileron is raised or lowered it turns on a tube that rotates inside the micarta.

BTW, what is micarta? It is cloth (linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or other fabric) that is in a thermoset plastic. George Westinghouse started using phenolic resin as the thermoset plastic in 1910. So, it seems that this was the beginnings of what we now know as fiberglass.

So, now we have a new word. Wonder where we can use it? 

"Hey Honey, have you seen my high voltage micarta?"  

"They plates are flimsy, they should have made them out of micarta."

"Hey honey, when you are at the grocery store, could you pick up some half inch high pressure thermoset micarta?"

Yeah, we'll have lots of fun with this word. . . .

P.S. It is pronounced my-carta, not me-carta. I just noticed my voice synthesizer butchered it, ha.