Replace fabric with glass

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 20:01:51 +0000, Ernest Christley wrote:

Most of the fabric covered aiplanes I've seen didn't seem that hard. That
is, you could walk up to them and push the fabric in with your hand. The
way I understand the fabric process, it is basically a composite
structure. You have a nylon cloth with a paint "epoxy".

Could a much stronger and lighter covering be made by wetting out some
2.5oz glass cloth on plastic, waiting till it's tacky and then wrapping it
around the airframe? The epoxy would be much lighter than paint, and
fiberglass cloth is MUCH stronger than nylon.

I've seen some places where builders used composites in place of fabric,
and it seemed that they all aimed for a multlayer, stiff panel, putting
the weight far above the original. I just don't understand why?

The fabric must be quite taut so that the external surface of the aircraft
maintains the correct shape, even when subjected to the force of the
airflow. How would you achieve this with fibreglas without having
excessive weight?

--
Kevin Horton RV-8 (finishing kit)
Ottawa, Canada
http://go.phpwebhosting.com/~khorton/rv8/
e-mail: khorton02(_at_)rogers(_dot_)com