Fancy Pants
WHEN I FIRST SAW a 1/32 plywood sheet at the hobby shop, I thought this would make a great structural material for a fuselage. But when I started thinking of the details involved with shaping and making flat patterns, I figured it was too complex, so I scrapped the idea. Next, I noticed articles on building with plywood, so I tried one. My first plywood plane was from an article in a magazine. I found that a complete plywood fuselage was light and rigid. However, the structures did not hold up to well on hard landings. They would start splitting at wing openings and, once a small crack developed, engine vibrations and a few hard landings did the rest. Also, an all-plywood fuselage caused a peculiar shrill sound when the engine was turning full bore.
