Light Plane Heritage published in EAA Experimenter DECEMBER 1994
the hows and whys of aircraft tubing by
Bob Whittier EAA 1235
At EAA fly-ins of the 1950s and 1960s, practically all the homebuilt planes were built from plans and raw materials purchased from various sources. Today, a steadily growing percentage of the homebuilts at these gatherings have been assembled from kits. It is to be acknowledged t h a t t h e r e ’s m e r i t i n k i t s . When builders buy a kit from a reputable company, people having much enthusiasm but scant aeronautical experience are usually assured that everything going into their homebuilt aircraft is of approved aeronautical quality. Also, builders save much time and aggravation by ordering kits from one source instead of searching far afield for the many different materials needed to construct an airplane. On the other hand, when one buys a kit, one pays for the time and effort someone else has put into buying the material it contains, shaping the parts, and marketing the resulting kits. Nevertheless, when we consider the prices of kits for even the simpler ultralight aircraft, the thought comes that even such aircraft can seem quite costly to those who can fly only a modest number of hours per year.
With a little searching, one can still find and buy plans for homebuilt aircraft designed three, four, or more decades ago. People are even building Pietenpols designed more than 60 years ago. Whatever one might think of its antiquated ap-
state-of-the-art designs. At the same time, would-be “eyeball engineers” find it steadily more difficult to find aircraft design literature slanted to their needs and levels of education. It becomes obvious on walking around at a major fly-in that many of the people present are under 50 years of age. Most of these folks have had little if any contact with the basic airplane design literature published between 1920 and 1940. That literature, because it dealt with simpler, slower airplanes, is still useful today. But, we still see fewer and fewer new designs created by modern equivalents of Bernie Pietenpol, Ed Heath, Les Long, and O.G. Corben. That is something for all of us to be concerned about, because it means we are drifting away from the word experimental in the name Experimental Aircraft Association. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to give younger readers some exposure to what went on before they were born, and to encourage all readers to do some serious thinking about the homebuilt aircraft field. Let’s take aircraft tubing as a good subject for discussion. We have come to take steel tubing for
Few indeed realize what a specialized and sophisticated material aircraft steel tubing is. pearance and rather heavy weight, the Pietenpol remains a very practical design for enthusiasts who want a simple, fun plane that can be built from raw materials using common home workshop tools. Why are there no plans for updated versions of simple sport planes such as the Pietenpol, Heath Parasol, and Baby Ace? A likely answer is that today, people fortunate enough to have training in aeronautical engineering prefer to use their knowledge to produce modern,
Editor’s Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA’s Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this series, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!—HGF
22 SEPTEMBER 2012
