wrote:
As I understand it, Bowlus made the first Baby Albatross with scarfed
skins (12" rings), he then carved a wood plug and made left and right
concrete female molds, followed by 2 concrete male plugs. The veneer
sections would then be fitted and placed in the mold (3 ply), don't
know if heat was applied, but everything was glued up and then the
concrete plug was lowered into the female form. After curing the two
halves were joined. Howley Bowlus was doing with wood, what we would
all see 25 years later in our fiberglass sailplanes.
JJ

Bob Kuykendall wrote:
Longitudanally?

Yes, longitudinal planks.

To do one glider , it would make the most sense to do as was done on
serial #1-3 which is to use scarfed segments. Those were as pretty as
the later ones and would not require any special tooling.
The molded pods used 2 plys of poplar with external ply of mohogany. To
do this requires not only the mold, but a whole series of patterns for
the laminations so they fit properly together.
I have one of the "California" Babys that had the pod replaced by a
steel tube inner frame with fiberglass shell which appears to have been
pulled from an original pod. Not sure whether I'll restore that way or
do original inner structure and use shell with veneered exterior. Will
have to wait till I have more time to devote to it.
Nice to see that someone is seriously interested in thi wonderful old
glider.
UH