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replacing plywood construction with cored composite panels

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BobbyZ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
228
Location
Cape May NJ USA and Varna Bulgaria
I'm currently looking at a plywood/foam design that uses a VW engine for a first build.While it is a great plane it's a little over 103 weight and I think it could be made to comply with the use of lighter materials and a different engine.

Now before this turns into a thread on the pitfalls of redesigning a plane and all that is involved I want to say that I'd most likely pay to have someone go over the changes.But before I proceed and spend the money I want to do some rough calculations on my own as a learning exercise.

I know they also have different characteristics but I've worked on boats where we've substituted honeycomb panels for structural interior bulkheads that originally were designed for marine ply.So I figured it wouldnt be a massive undertaking.

So in essence would it be feasible to replace the older style ply construction with a newer sandwich style composite?

Ideally I'd like to redesign the plane to lose some weight and gain a little interior volume and I feel its possible.But I have no clue as to where to look to get started.
 
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