wright1902glider wrote:
On May 5, 9:05 pm, wrote:

On May 5, 7:58 am, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

Dont knock some of those alternative timbers. Some mean that the
drying up of spruce is an artifact of history, not the end of timber
aircraft.


If you follow the spruce specs back far enough, you eventually run
into "Them Wright Boys", and beyond that, Octave Chanute. I think the
reason they went with spruce back in the day was because it had the
highest strength-to-weight properties and it was available in the
local lumberyards in lengths exceeding 16 feet. Keeping in mind that
both Chanute and the Wrights were using eastern species of spruce,
what they referred to as "West Virginia Silver Spruce." Exactly which
species that is, I dunno. But its what they could get, it was light,
and it worked better than the alternatives like southern yellow pine.
A quick look back at the Wrights' notebooks tells us that thier 1904
machine was originally pine, but had a nasty habbit of shattering
parts when it crashed, uh, I mean landed. Broken parts were eventually
replaced with spruce.

Truth is that lots of things will work for building an airplane. Some
better than others. By what degree is often the determining factor.
But as resources deminish, alternatives look better.

Harry


What was it you used on your Flyer, Harry?

Richard
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