I have a question that some of you may answer. I have two real hobbies, wood work and air craft. Seeing the H1 with the very beautiful woodwork makes me wonder somthing I have thought about since my first ride in a Stagger Wing and every time I see something on the Spruce Goose. Can an aircraft be built out of wood today and be comparable to other materials?
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I laid back on this one but now gotta stick in my $.02... I don't think there are any problems with wood as a main material for aircraft other than maintenence.
Hangaring would, of course, be a prerequisite.. Moisture being the enemy of all materials, including metal, loves wood and ya would not want to let it be in a damp envronment for long at a time without a complete dryout.
Living in the great damp northwest, you begin to understand that even when covered, wood gets wet, so a heated hangar would probably be the thing to make a wood structure last.
I had some measure of exposure to the Hughes Flying Boat and I can say that this wood structure seemed to be holding up quite well. Of course, most of its life it was protected and climate controled but over the five or so years it sat in, frankly, disgusting storage conditions, it seemed to hold up well also. Though, I will qualify this with the fact that there was damage and a few more years of that storage and it would have begun to show a lot more than it did.
Wood is cool, probably a lot more forgiving than metal in a lot of ways but it needs to be protected more so than metal.
Now.. whatcha gonna build!!??
WayneWayne Sagar
"Pusher of Electrons"
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Its Art
For now I think Im gonna build another RC plane, but watch for a home built at some point.
I have a friend with a stagger wing that he is having rebuilt. Its art to see that plane with no covering. I dont know if I could trust a plane I built at a few thousand feet!!
Ever see that PBS show where the guy builds the home built? He gives up on the first attempt and cuts it up with a chain saw! Then he builds one from a kit with a company that knows what their doing. Thats the way Id have to do it.
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