X-Mozilla-Keys:                                                                                 
Bill Freeman wrote:

Paul,

Ken Rand used a low modulus dynel (IIRC) knitted cloth
with epoxy resin to skin the foam which he used for wing
shaping over the wood primary structure.  The dynel added
*very*little strength due to both the low modulus and the
knitted weave and was eventually replaced with glass cloth,
which adds a LOT of strength over the original prototype.
Anybody remember how Ken Rand died?  As Paul recently
quoted about history - remember other's mistakes.

I believe the Piper Papoose was the first all composite airplane,
but there are also the Windecker Eagle and the Belanca
Skyrocket.  The Skyrocket "lived" at Charleston WV for
years, and was old in the middle 70s, I don't remember when
if first flew.  Heard they were flying it again recently.
Burt took the hotwiring of foam cores for wings from the
model airplane guys, but they used to cover the foam with
very thin balsa, since the only resin available long ago was
polyester and it dissolved the polystyrene foam.

Nah! I used epoxy resin, fiberglass and blue styrofoam on an antenna 
mast design about 1958 or 1959. Our Chaparral chassis were epoxy
fiberglass in about 1963. I think epoxy goes back long before
that. The Windecker Eagle was the certified airplane from Midland
Texas I was trying to think of the name. IMHO Burt's main contribution
was making the canard stable enough to fly. The Wrights used
a canard of course. PL

The Papoose was flown for a while and eventually Piper
decided it would not be cost effective.  I think it still exists
in some museum somewhere.

Bill

 
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