Stringers

[old man emu]

I'm open to comments here.

 

I plan on building a plane that has a tubular steel frame. No problems there. It is going to be fabric covered.

 

The design originated in the late '20's, but is sound. When it was designed, a lot of modern materials were not around. For example, the plans call for 1/4" x 1" wooden strips for the stringers. These are meant to have a hole drilled through them adjacent to the fuselage struts, and cord fed through the hole so the stringer can be lashed to the struts.

 

Now, it occured to me that the sole role of the stringers is to provide something to restrict the movement of the fabric towards the steel frame, thus giving the rounded shape to the fuselage. Also, this is an American design, and we all know that there the price of wood is low, and its availability is high. The opposited situation occurs here.

 

What I was thinking was that I could use rigid plastic conduit instead, and attach it to the fuselage struts by drilling a hole through the conduit and lashing it using nylon cable ties.

 

What do you reckon?

 

Old Man Emu

 

 

[djpacro]

Worth a try, OME, but my guess is that it won't be rigid enough to resist the fabric when you tighten it.

 

The wooden stringers are rectangular with the long side resisting the fabric so they are very stiff in that direction.

 

You might have more luck with commercial Al rectangular extrusion.

 

 

[old man emu]

You might have more luck with commercial Al rectangular extrusion.

Yeah, I had thought of that. Garry Morgan uses Al stringers in his planes, and they work OK.

 

If I follow the dimensions of the plans, the conduit would be 1" diameter and the maximum distance between fuselage struts is 25"

 

OME

 

 

[facthunter]

Wood Stringers.

 

OME, I think the plastic would distort over time and sag between the supports..

 

Al would be OK if the sections were straight.Once you have folded it into a Vee, you can't bend it.

 

WOOD is best. You can steam it to bend it if you want a better shape. Wood stringers give you the chance to build an exotic shape, and make something very pleasing to the eye. I can't see that the cost would be very significant if you rip a section down to small width pieces yourself. Nev