Today's Message Index:
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1. 02:42 AM - Re: Sportsman 2+2 (Brian Alley)
2. 08:40 AM - Re: Composite (Craymondw@aol.com)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Re: Sportsman 2+2 |
The options are there if the builder has the determination to build and fly. Kits are great if you want to or can pay extra for upto 51% of the labor completed for you. There is always plans built as the least expensive option. I built my W-10 Wittman Tailwind for $15,000 and 5 years of part time labor. The Tailwind is faster than most RV's and cost less to complete than the airframe kits from Vans. Kits certainly have there place but most anyone with determination can find a good airplane to build and afford to fly it when it's done. T-18's are neat airplanes but Wittman put the first 2 place on the market in 1953!!! In the 2005 Airventure cup race Red Hamilton's 160 HP W-10 averaged 214.68 mph and beat all but one RV. That was a 200 HP RV-8. See the race results at http://www.rguerra.com/avcup/avcup05/2005results.html
BRIAN ALLEY (N320WT)
CARBON FIBER COMPOSITES
101 Caroline Circle
Hurricane, WV 25526
www.carbonfibercomposites.net
304-562-6800 home
304-395-4932 cell
How are you going to win by a nose if you don't stick out your neck?
Message 2
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A German manufacturer of Remark composite yachts and had just completed
a production mold for casting RV4 fuselages out of carbon fiber, assisted me.
When my German friend looked at the various parts supplied by Glasair he
asked; "Vot are you building..a tank? " His brother was the Blackhawk division
GM
for Sykorsky Aircraft and puzzled over why the Glasair parts in were hand lay
ups. Sykorsky buys pre cured composite sheets and stamps out patterns that are
placed into molds that are heated to around 350 degrees and pressed into
shape.
Apparently the designer of Cirrus aircraft is seriously considering
switching over to Sykorsky's method of production and claims that by doing that
Cirrus aircraft will cut production costs by as much as half.
I wanted my German friend to duplicate all my parts out of carbon fiber
and felt I could lower the over all weight by two to three hundred pounds. A RV4
empennage I had recently completed weighed as much as my completed Glasair
rudder! But I had time constraints because I was building my Glasair in the den
and had only one year left before placing the house on the market.
Getting back to using heat for forming parts over lay up. Once you get
expensive hand labor out of doing lay ups and go intio mass production, the
price drastically falls. The molds can be made out of high temperature composite
or ceramic material with chambers that allow heated air to flow through. The
first kit manufacturer that introduces this method will corner the market for
reasonably priced kits.
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