More "Rag and Tube"

The friend of mine who expressed some lack of understanding of how a steel tube fuselage worked still had some trouble figuring it out from the photo of Mike Finney's airplane.  So I am going to try again. 

This photo is of another Wag-a-Bond Traveler, this one being built by Gil Devault.  Gil is another "internet acquaintance" whose advice has been invaluable to me.

You can see that the basic fuselage shape is formed by a frame of welded steel tubes.  Pretty basic.  The frame is covered by dacron fabric, not unlike the balsa and tissue models most of us built as kids.

You no longer see this construction as often in factory produced aircraft (exceptions = cub-a-likes such as the CubCrafters, and other aircraft built to be light and strong such as the Aviat Husky, Maule and some others) because the construction requires a lot of highly skilled labor.  Aluminum monocoque construction is much more common as it is better suited to assembly line methods. 

But if you want a strong, yet light, airplane, rag and tube is the way to go.  That is why bush pilots like rag and tube.

For us homebuilders, rag and tube is almost always a plans-built, rather than a kit, undertaking.  Even the few kits out there are not much more than a set of plans and bundle of 4130 steel tubes.For those who want a cruiser, the all-aluminum kits are a good choice.  They are typically faster airplanes of more modern design and faster and easier to build.  But for those of us who want a "low and slow" short, rough field airplane, the extra time to build rag and tube is worth it.