How to build a spruce biplane

[roger wiegand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVG0-sbx3wA&t=31s

This is an amazing and wonderful film from 1918 about going from a tree to a flying biplane. It is long, but worth every minute. Have your mute button handy, as the "music" is probably not to many people's taste.

There was much to be impressed with here-- first and foremost was the literally thousands of people it took in the factories to build these planes. Almost every step was carried out by hand. Great examples of steam bending, some seriously scary machining, a few early pantograph-type replicators, etc. The lack of any sort of safety equipment, be it glasses, gloves, or respirators was sobering (at least the welders wore gloves). There were a (to me) surprising number of women doing both the"expected" tasks like handling the fabric for the wings, but also working side-by-side with the men doing carpentry and machining. -- I didn't think that happened until WWII.

[Bruce Mack]

Thanks. I put it on my watch list for tonight.

[Roger Feeley]

I was surprised to see that the wood was not riven (split). I would think that something like an aircraft would want grain running the length of the piece.
I've had a long term hankering to build some Roorkee chairs. The book says to use riven wood for maximum strength. I found a little saw mill where the guy supplies windsor chair makers and he says he can give me some stuff that's straight. He says he can fudge his Wood-Mizer to cut with the grain. Maybe that's what these guys are doing?

[Larry Edgerton]

Thank you, quite interesting, and I did not mind the music at all. Fascinating, and the relative crudity of construction was interesting. There is a woman in I believe Missouri that has a machine to make wooden props, and the video is fascinating, I will see if I can find it.

This video on Sopwith is very interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgxCioiN5pQ

[roger wiegand]

There were pictures of logs at the mill being split into quarters prior to sawing. But those were big trees, a lot could happen over their multiple feet in diameter.

[Mike Kees]

That was an amazing video. those machines were extremely labour intensive to build. I was impressed by the jigs and set-up of every step. The prop section was really something,the two guys sanding on the long belt with the prop hanging from a rope,wow. Very high tech for 100+ years ago. One other thing I noticed was how thin all the people were,maybe doing everything by hand kept them all skinny. thanks for sharing Roger.