"Ernest Christley" wrote in message
m...
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

Most cloth like Polyfiber's and Ceconite's is polyester, trade name Dacron.
Nobody uses cotton any more because it can't hold a candle to polyester. I
don't know of any use for nylon on aircraft wings.

with a paint "epoxy".

The coatings are nitrocellulose or vinyl base, not epoxy,afaik. Paints for
Polyfiber are vinyl based or polyurethane with a flexitive.

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.

One of the covering processes uses fiberglas cloth. I remember Ray Stits
badmouthing it on his videotape. It has at least one desirable quality ---
resistance to deterioration from UV rays.