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Alternatives to spruce in wooden aircraft construction?

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cluttonfred

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Aircraft plywood seems like it will be around for a long time, if nothing else the Finnish birch type from sustainably managed forests, but spar quality spruce seems to be getting harder and harder to find. Yes, there are solutions like laminated spars, but at some point even that will be problematic. What if we want to keep building little airplanes largely of wood/plywood and fabric but without the spruce? I see at least four approaches, there are probably more:

1) Use other woods and take the weight penalty

2) Build up plywood laminations into substitute spars, longerons, etc.

3) Use hybrid plywood/aluminum construction with aluminum spars, longerons, etc. and plywood ribs, bulkheads, etc.

4) Use selective composite reinforcement to give the required strength to an otherwise all-plywood design.​

Yes, I know that there are also the alternatives of going all-aluminum or all-composite, but let's keep this thread on topic for the "Wood Construction" section.

Cheers,

Matthew
 
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