This has been done with various degrees of success in sailplanes since the
late 1960s. Here are a few links that you might consider looking at:

http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/Sc...the_HP-18.html
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/Co...all.html#wings
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/Co...all_10-80.html

Schreder used bonded wings on the following models:

HP-16 - http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/HP...rst_Flight.htm

RS-15 - http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/RS-15/C-GPUB.html

HP-18 - http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/HP-18/N15DP/N15DP.htm

http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/St...03_Seniors.htm

I hope you find these links helpful in your quest for the optimum
construction technique.

Wayne
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder

P.S. I use to own an HP-16T
(http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/HP-16/N16VP.html) and didn't have any
problems with the bonded wings.



"asennad" wrote in message
om...
I remember seeing an article several years ago on a car company
developing a racecar using a bonded aluminum structure and rivet
reinforcing. It struck me at the time that this would make an improved
method of aircraft construction and I was wondering if this had been
used before on homebuilt aircraft and what might be the pitfalls of
such a system.

My thinking is that the aircraft's aluminum skins could be attached
over a wooden buck and adhesive used to attach the skins. Once the
adhesive has setup, the bulkheads could be installed, holes drilled
and rivets set. The rivets would still from the primary means of
fastening the panels and the adhesive could serve as extra
reinforcement.

I suggest this as I suspect it would make for a quicker way of
construction particularly as the buck could be reused for subsequent
aircraft.