Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: Larry Neal
Larry,It was Bill Stout of Ford Trimotor fame whose "lifelong doctrine was'simplicate and add lightness.' "Ref. THE SPEED SEEKERS Thomas G. Foxworth, 1974, page 83. (ISBN 0 - 385 - 06050 - 5)This is a terrific book covering the quest for speed with the emphasison the period 1919 to 1926. It provides much information about racingairplanes and the development of airframes and powerplants, plus thehair-raising adventures of some famous people. During this time, airracing provided the main impetus for this development. Tom Foxworthhas a knack for spinning a tale, and his book is an excellent and infor-mative account.Unfortunately, Pietenpols are not mentioned. However, their technologylevel is similar to that of the early part of the period dealt with in thisfinebook.Check your library, but be prepared to forsake work on your Pietenpoluntil you have finished reading it!Cheers,Graham Hansen________________________________________________________________________________Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 20:20:12 -0600

Original Posted By: "Graham Hansen"
Hello, Pietniks-Sorry to whip this horse to death, but there is one more thing I wanted to mention about the alternative spar design that I cooked up for the airplane I'm building (per my previous post). The stock spars as designed and built in the prototype are solid; the main spars are 3/4" thick, 7" deep; the aft spars are 1/2" thick, about 3-1/2" deep. The spars are all 11 ft. long, and the cabin is 2 ft. wide, so it's quite similar to the Pietenpol in that respect. The alternative composite spars with foam cores and fiberglass faces (for shear and torsional stiffness) calc out to 9 lbs. less weight than solid (non-routed) spars of the same dimensions. I have not yet built them so I can't verify that weight savings, but it's there on paper. I don't know what the built-up UK Piet spars weigh v.s. stock, but I'd bet there is at least 10 lbs. difference there. Is that worth fooling with? You decide...Oscar ZunigaMedford, Oregonmailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.comwebsite at http://www.flysquirrel.net________________________________________________________________________________