Does anybody know the name, type and
location of the first fiberglass air plane to fly?

Paul Lamar

Windecker Eagle or Learfan?

Perry Mick

Wow! Perry I am impressed. That did not take long.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windecker_Industries

"Windecker Industries was a USA aircraft manufacturer originally founded in 1962 as Windecker Research in Midland, Texas. It was the first company to produce and market powered aircraft built predominantly of composite materials (in this case, foam and fiberglass). The company was founded by Leo Windecker, a dentist from Lake Jackson, Texas."

"In 1965, the company delivered a pair of composite wings to Cessna Aircraft Company, where they were subjected to structural and flight testing on a Cessna 182."

" Results proved promising, so the company built an experimental prototype of all-composite aircraft, the Windecker ACX-7 Eagle. Designed by Dr. Leo Windecker and his wife, Dr. Fairfax Windecker (also a dentist), the aircraft was molded from a unidirectional fiberglass called Fibaloy. The fuselage was made in two halves in full-size female molds and joined like a model kit; the wings were full core foam around a tubular fiberglass fuel tank, with wing skins formed in full-size female molds. The first prototype, constructed in the Midland research center, flew in October 1967."

"After a redesign of the empennage, the Eagle AC-7 became the first composite airplane to receive FAA certification, in December 1969. (A number of composite sailplane designs had been certified by the FAA as early as 1967.[2]) Windecker went on to produce six civilian Eagles in the early 1970s."


I was in Midland and working for Jim Hall in 1965 that had already built a fiberglass chassis race car.

http://www.chaparralcars.com/2e.php

"The first Chaparral was a small, lightweight, tubular-frame, Chevy powered, front-engined car designed and built by Troutman and Barnes in California. While it performed well, it didn't produce the overall results Jim wanted, so in 1962 Hall set out in his Midland, Texas shop to design and build an all new car, Chaparral 2."

"Chaparral 2 would be a mid-engine design to put more weight on the driving wheels, lower the center of gravity, reduce weight, and reduce frontal area. Hall reasoned that a fiberglass monocoque chassis, using fewer body parts, would be lighter and stiffer then a tubular steel space frame with full body panels."

It was vacuum bagged fiberglass epoxy cured in an auto clave. It was really designed by Andy Green of General Dynamics Fort Worth.

http://www.ustempest.com/USTempest.com/Rebuild_of_US_160.html

"When he worked for General Dynamics, he was deeply involved in the relatively new field of composite construction of advanced aircraft.  Through his work on aircraft, Andy became a leading expert in composite construction."

"Andy found time in 1962 to design and build a revolutionary race-car chassis for Chaparral Cars in Midland, Texas.  A totally composite construction, the chassis was so much stiffer and lighter than a conventional metal chassis that General Motors sent a special team of engineers to inspect the chassis and try to figure out how it worked."

http://www.rotaryeng.net/monocoque.pdf


Paul Lamar