lostpilot28
Well Known Member
I'm at the point of attaching the canopy skirt to the RV, but I've decided to go with a big-ole one-piece fiberglass skirt. I was thinking of making it with 3 layers of 8oz E-glass and a top layer of 5oz S-glass (smoother finish). I ran this by a friend of mine from my Pulsar flying days...he's an ex-composite engineer, so I figured he'd provide some good feedback.
That left me with a new question. He said that fiberglass is 1/3 as stiff as aluminum (note I didn't say "strong"), so I would need roughly .09" thick fiberglass skirt to be as rigid as the .037" aluminum skirt.
Question #1: Is the aluminum skirt structural? It doesn't seem to be, but I'm not an aeronautical engineer.
Question #2: If it's not structural, does the aluminum really need to be .037" thick? Hence, could I get away with a much thinner layer of fiberglass than .09"?
I've already done a search on VAF, but this hasn't been discussed. I'd rather not go with Carbon Fiber for 2 reasons - cost & it's ability to corode metal. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
That left me with a new question. He said that fiberglass is 1/3 as stiff as aluminum (note I didn't say "strong"), so I would need roughly .09" thick fiberglass skirt to be as rigid as the .037" aluminum skirt.
Question #1: Is the aluminum skirt structural? It doesn't seem to be, but I'm not an aeronautical engineer.
Question #2: If it's not structural, does the aluminum really need to be .037" thick? Hence, could I get away with a much thinner layer of fiberglass than .09"?
I've already done a search on VAF, but this hasn't been discussed. I'd rather not go with Carbon Fiber for 2 reasons - cost & it's ability to corode metal. Any advice is greatly appreciated.