"Andrew" wrote in message
ups.com...
CC: Zenith Aircraft Company

I have an aeronautical engineer friend retired from McDonnell
Douglas who once was in charge of the Harrier project for the U.S.
team. I respect his opinion which is that pull type, "pop" rivets are
only used on aircraft where a bucked rivet could not possibly be used
or on non-critical, low stress applications.

That opinion is not shared by everyone. Now, you can't willy nilly replace
bucked rivets with pop rivets, but there are examples of aircraft designed
for pop rivets. The T-18 is an example. It would be hard to argue that John
Thorpe didn'd know what he was doing, eh?


It is my understanding that the bucked rivet, which has been
used over the years in aluminum aircraft, is stronger than the pull-
type pop rivet. In consideration of the Zenith Aircraft 601 and 701,
how is it that they are using a Textron Brand pull-type rivet?

They designed it that way?

Has
there been some breakthrough in material or design in theses Textron
pop rivets making them comparable to the old style "bucked" rivets?

I doubt it.

John Thorpe specified Monel pop rivet from, IIRC, U.S. Shoe Manufacturing
(But don't quote me on the source - it's been 30 years since I worked on a
T-18)

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
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