Electrically it would work just fine. The problem is how to get the
grounding bolts of the antenna base to mechanically connect to the aluminum
and not corrode over a long period of time. A secondary problem is that the
antenna gets as much "connection" to the metal skin of an airplane through
the capacitance between the metal base and the skin through a very thin
rubber gasket acting as a dielectric as it does with the metal screw
contact. WItness the fact that most of those fiberglass whip antennas have
a rather sturdy epoxy paint job on the base. 99 out of 100 times you take
the antenna off and you find that the paint in the bolt holes is still quite
intact, meaning that the screw never DID cut through that paint to give you
the ground you were hoping for.

Me? If it is a tupperware airplane or toothpicks and tissue paper airplane
I go down to the hardware store and buy some thin (1 or 2 mil) shim brass or
copper. Cut me a plate using the base of the antenna as a template and four
strips 22.5" long. Solder the strips to the brass plate near the center,
stuff the strips through a hole in the fuselage where the antenna is going
to go, leaving the plate on the OUTside of the fuselage, bolting the antenna
through the brass plate and through the fuselage, and then tidy up the brass
strips by "attaching" (glue, RTV, epoxy) them flat to the underside of the
fuselage.

Jim

--
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
--Aristotle


"Dan" wrote in message
...

Would perforated aluminum foil or aluminum screen embedded in the skin
and bonded to ground do the job? I'm assuming it wouldn't make for a
strong lamination, but as a ground plane it seems kind of tidy.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired