Zenith Aircraft and Pull Type Rivets

CC: Zenith Aircraft Company

I have an aeronautical engineer friend retired from McDonnell
Douglas who once was in charge of the Harrier project for the U.S.
team. I respect his opinion which is that pull type, "pop" rivets are
only used on aircraft where a bucked rivet could not possibly be used
or on non-critical, low stress applications.

It is my understanding that the bucked rivet, which has been
used over the years in aluminum aircraft, is stronger than the pull-
type pop rivet. In consideration of the Zenith Aircraft 601 and 701,
how is it that they are using a Textron Brand pull-type rivet? Has
there been some breakthrough in material or design in theses Textron
pop rivets making them comparable to the old style "bucked" rivets?


Thanks,
Andrew