Hi Fellers,
I'm planning to build an experimental PA-18. I have a number of the original Piper drawings so I could actually build an 18 clone if I wanted to.
However, I'd like to modify the fuselage to make it a full truss instead of a smaller truss with the sheet metal turtle deck arches. I would think this would make a stronger fuselage structure without adding too much weight.
I've come up with a design to do this but I really don't want to have to spend the money to have an engineer do a detailed stress analysis on the design to satisify safety and the FAA. I'm assuming that in a case like this that the DAR that performs the certification inspection would want to see that there had been at least some engineering done on the design.
I know a few years ago someone had gone through the process of certifying a cub fuselage that incorporated this change, but it never went into full scale production.
Has anyone ever seen plans for building an 18 fuselage like this?
I'm planning to build an experimental PA-18. I have a number of the original Piper drawings so I could actually build an 18 clone if I wanted to.
However, I'd like to modify the fuselage to make it a full truss instead of a smaller truss with the sheet metal turtle deck arches. I would think this would make a stronger fuselage structure without adding too much weight.
I've come up with a design to do this but I really don't want to have to spend the money to have an engineer do a detailed stress analysis on the design to satisify safety and the FAA. I'm assuming that in a case like this that the DAR that performs the certification inspection would want to see that there had been at least some engineering done on the design.
I know a few years ago someone had gone through the process of certifying a cub fuselage that incorporated this change, but it never went into full scale production.
Has anyone ever seen plans for building an 18 fuselage like this?