Vance,
Almost agree here, after researching carbon

replacement for my Vision
I hit

a brick wall because, even though Carbon is lighter

for the same
strength,

stronger for the same weight and stiffer - on  a

composite you can
only go

so light before your too low on impact resistance.
The weight savings ( in some cases) aren't there for

the cost of
Carbon.

Then you look at Nomex honeycomb and Carbon- what a

nightmare for the
home

builder!!
George ( down under)

In the cowls I make for the Tailwind I use a material
called CoreMat in the flat areas of the cowl. It
offers the benifits of honeycomb with none of the
difficulties of Nomex. CoreMat is a dense cellulose
mat that adds bulk to the part with minimum added
weight. My cowl is much stiffer than the available
glass cowl and weighs 15 lbs compared to 36 lbs for
the glass cowl. I'm not an engineer and don't pretend
to know everything about composites. On the otherhand,
for applications like homebuilts in non-structrual
areas carbon can offer significant weight savings.
I'll leave the really technical stuff to the engineers.

=====
BRIAN ALLEY (N320WT)
CARBON FIBER COMPOSITES
304-872-7938 shop
304-562-6800 home

 
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