WOOD

Think about your favourite aviation museum – anywhere in the world, then remember the oldest aeroplane there. Almost certainly, that aeroplane will have been substantially made out of wood. It doesn’t matter where in the world you were, it was – with a certain amount of steel, aluminium alloy, and fabric, the material of choice

- Dr Guy Gratton

You might be surprised to know, if your life revolves around flying “heavy metal” that wooden aeroplanes are still in production. Probably the most interesting I can think of is the Italian built Alpi Pioneer, available in two and four seat versions, with distinct and attractive Italian styling, it’s an impressive and fast little aeroplane.

During the cold war, at least the early part of it, many of our countries were defended by wooden aeroplanes – in the form particularly of the de Havilland Vampire which, carrying forward technology from the wartime Mosquito, used large amounts of plywood in its construction. So wood was good enough for that generation of jet fighters, and is good enough still for decent performance light aeroplanes. But we’ve not used it much in the majority of modern aeroplanes, and never in modern transport aeroplanes. Let’s look at why, how, and strengths and weaknesses of wooden aeroplanes.