On 14 Oct 2005 09:56:25 -0700, wrote:


In his blue book (Sportplane Builder) he has a Chapter near the
end on Dacron, but Chapter 5 is 'Fiberglass Tips' and has a section
'Fiberglass Your Bird'. This discusses using lightweight
fiberglass cloth and resin to cover a plywood fuselage, similar
to light boat construction. (BTW, there is a boatbuilding
technique called 'stich and glue' which looks to be adaptable
to stressed skin construction.)

stitch and glue is used on the mirror dinghy. it works but I'd stick
with proven aircraft techniques because they build lighter.


But I don't think he suggests fiberglass cloth and resin over
ribs with nothing else underneath. ISTM that the cloth would
sag between the ribs and unlike the dope in the razorback system,
the curing resin would not draw it tight, unless you found
a resin that would shrink. Hmm, doesn't some poylester resin
shrink when it cures?

look in the eaa magazine archives for articles describing the building
of a one off homebuilt called "ol ironsides" that describes a sound
method of making fibreglass covering for a fuselage that is over a
truss wooden fuselage. afaik ol ironsides was basically a wooden
single seat Tailwind.

Stealth Pilot
ps
one of the advantages of definitive works like Tony's books is that
they rapidly bring everyone up to the state of the art.
the disadvantage only becomes evident after some time.
nobody moves past that standard for quite some time.