Aircraft Structural Components

                       The major aircraft structures are wings, fuselage, and empennage. The primary flight control surfaces, located on the wings and empennage, are ailerons, elevators, and rudder. These parts are connected by seams, called joints.

All joints constructed using rivets, bolts, or special fasteners are lap joints. Fasteners cannot be used on joints in which the materials to be joined do not overlap - for example, butt, tee and edge joints. A fayed edge is a type of lap joint made when two metal surfaces are butted up against one another in such a way as to overlap.

Internal aircraft parts are manufactured in four ways: Milling, stamping, bending, and extruding. The metal of a milled part is transformed from cast to wrought by first shaping and then either chemically etching or grinding it. A stamped part is annealed, placed in a forming press, and then re-heat treated.

Bent parts are made by sheet metal mechanics using the bend allowance and layout procedures. An extrusion is an aircraft part which is formed by forcing metal through a preshaped die. The resulting wrought forms are used as spars, stringers, longerons, or channels. In order for metal to be extruded, bent, or formed, it must first be made malleable and ductile by annealing. After the forming operation, the metal is re-heat treated and age hardened.

Airbus Wings

Here in the UK and in particular at the Airbus facility in North Wales, our expertise is in the manufacture of aircraft wings. Aircraft wings have to be strong enough to withstand the positive forces of flight as well as the negative forces of landing. Metal wings are of two types: Semicantilever and full cantilever. Semicantilever, or braced, wings are used on light aircraft. They are externally supported by struts or flying wires which connect the wing spar to the fuselage. A full cantilever wing is usually made of stronger metal. It requires no external bracing or support. The skin carries part of the wing stress. Parts common to both wing designs are spars, compression ribs, former ribs, stringers, stress plates, gussets. wing tips and wing skins.

Airbus at Broughton employs more than 5,000 people, mostly in manufacturing, but also in engineering and support functions such as procurement and finance.

Wing Spars

Two or more spars are used in the construction of a wing. They carry the main longitudinal -butt to tip - load of the wing. Both the spar and a compression rib connect the wing to the fuselage.

Compression Ribs

Compression ribs carry the main load in the direction of flight, from leading edge to trailing edge. On some aircraft the compression rib is a structural piece of tubing separating two main spars. The main function of the compression rib is to absorb the force applied to the spar when the aircraft is in flight.

Former Ribs

A former rib, which is made from light metal, attaches to the stringers and wing skins to give the wing its aerodynamic shape. Former ribs can be classified as nose ribs, trailing edge ribs, and mid ribs running fore and aft between the front and rear spar on the wing. Formers are not considered primary structural members.

Stringers

Stringers are made of thin sheets of preformed extruded or hand-formed aluminum alloy. They run front to back along the fuselage and from wing butt to wing tip. Riveting the wing skin to both the stringer and the ribs gives the wing additional strength.

Stress Plates

Stress plates are used on wings to support the weight of the fuel tank. Some stress plates are made of thick metal and some are of thin metal corrugated for strength. Stress plates are usually held in place by long rows of machine screws, with self-locking nuts, that thread into specially mounted channels. The stress-plate channeling is riveted to the spars and compression ribs.

Gussets

Gussets, or gusset plates, are used on aircraft to join and reinforce intersecting structural members. Gussets are used to transfer stresses from one member to another at the point where the members join.

Wing Tips

The wing tip, the outboard end of the wing, has two purposes: To aerodynamically smooth out the wing tip air flow and to give the wing a finished look.

Wing Skins

Wing skins cover the internal parts and provide for a smooth air flow over the surface of the wing. On full cantilever wings, the skins carry stress. However, all wing skins are to be treated as primary structures whether they are on braced or full cantilever surfaces.

Fuselage Assemblies.

The largest of the aircraft structural components, there are two types of metal aircraft fuselages: Full monocoque and semimonocoque. The full monocoque fuselage has fewer internal parts and a more highly stressed skin than the semimonocoque fuselage, which uses internal bracing to obtain its strength.

The full monocoque fuselage is generally used on smaller aircraft, because the stressed skin eliminates the need for stringers, former rings, and other types of internal bracing, thus lightening the aircraft structure.

The semimonocoque fuselage derives its strength from the following internal parts: Bulkheads, longerons, keel beams, drag struts, body supports, former rings, and stringers.

Bulkheads

A bulkhead is a structural partition, usually located in the fuselage, which normally runs perpendicular to the keel beam or longerons. A few examples of bulkhead locations are where the wing spars connect into the fuselage, where the cabin pressurization domes are secured to the fuselage structure, and at cockpit passenger or cargo entry doors.

Longerons And Keel Beams

Longerons and keel beams perform the same function in an aircraft fuselage. They both carry the bulk of the load traveling fore and aft. The keel beam and longerons, the strongest sections of the airframe, tie its weight to other aircraft parts, such as powerplants, fuel cells, and the landing gears.

Drag Struts And Other Fittings

Drag struts and body support fittings are other primary structural members. Drag struts are used on large jet aircraft to tie the wing to the fuselage center section. Body support fittings are used to support the structures which make up bulkhead or floor truss sections.

Former rings and fuselage stringers are not primary structural members. Former rings are used to give shape to the fuselage. Fuselage stringers running fore and aft are used to tie in the bulkheads and
former rings.

Aircraft Empennage Section

The empennage is the tail section of an aircraft. It consists of a horizontal stabilizer, elevator, vertical stabilizer and rudder. The conventional empennage section contains the same kind of parts used in the construction of a wing. The internal parts of the stabilizers and their flight controls are made with spars, ribs, stringers and skins.

Also, tail sections, like wings, can be externally or internally braced.

Horizontal Stabilizer And Elevator

The horizontal stabilizer is connected to a primary control surface, i.e., the elevator. The elevator causes the nose of the aircraft to pitch up or down. Together, the horizontal stabilizer and elevator provide stability about the horizontal axis of the aircraft. On some aircraft the horizontal stabilizer is made movable by a screw jack assembly which allows the pilot to trim the aircraft during flight.

Vertical Stabilizer And Rudder

The vertical stabilizer is connected to the aft end of the fuselage and gives the aircraft stability about the vertical axis. Connected to the vertical stabilizer is the rudder, the purpose of which is to turn the aircraft about its vertical axis.

Ailerons

Elevators and rudders are primary flight controls in the tail section. Ailerons are primary flight controls connected to the wings. Located on the outboard portion of the wing, they allow the aircraft to turn about the longitudinal axis.

When the right aileron is moved upward, the left one goes down, thus causing the aircraft to roll to the right. Because this action creates a tremendous force, the ailerons must be constructed in such a way as to withstand it.

Flight controls other than the three primary ones are needed on high-performance aircraft. On the wings of a wide-body jet, for example, there are as many as thirteen flight controls, including high and low-speed ailerons, flaps, and spoilers.

Flaps And Spoilers

Wing flaps increase the lift for take-off and landing. Inboard and outboard flaps, on the trailing edge of the wing, travel from full up, which is neutral aerodynamic flow position, to full down, causing air to pile up and create lift. Leading edge flaps - Krueger flaps and variable-camber flaps - increase the wing chord size and thus allow the aircraft to take off or land on a shorter runway. Spoilers, located in the center section span-wise, serve two purposes. They assist the high-speed ailerons in turning the aircraft during flight, and they are used to kill the aerodynamic lift during landing by spreading open on touchdown.

Trim Tabs

Connected to the primary flight controls are devices called trim tabs. They are used to make fine adjustments to the flight path of an aircraft. Trim tabs are constructed like wings or ailerons, but are
considerably smaller.

Aircraft Undercarriages

                       With very few exceptions, all aircraft need an undercarriage. This performs two main functions:

o It supports the aircraft on the ground.
o It absorbs the shock of landings and provides smooth taxying.

There is more to an undercarriage than just carrying out these functions, however. It must support the aircraft in the desired attitude on the ground, so that the drag on the take-off run is minimised, and the aircraft taxies without any tendency to float at normal speeds. It must withstand the loads that will occur during all movements on the ground, including braking and side loads. The undercarriage serves no function at all during flight, so it must be as small and light as possible.

There are many different layouts of undercarriage in current use. The type chosen depends on the type of aircraft and its intended use. For almost all aircraft, except some light aircraft, the tricycle layout is preferred, because it supports the aircraft in a horizontal attitude, giving low drag during the ground run. However, there are several different kinds of main unit, for different installations.

The designer's main concern when choosing the type of main unit is how many wheels the unit will have, and their arrangement. This will depend on the weight of the aircraft and the way in which the undercarriage is to be retracted.

Aircraft wheels.

Each main-wheel unit may contain a single wheel, a pair of wheels side by side or in tandem, or four or more wheels. As aircraft become heavier, the loading on each wheel increases, leading to a considerable increase in the damage done to runways. By having the weight spread over a greater number of wheels, the contact pressure of the undercarriage is reduced. This also increases safety if a tyre bursts on landing. The Boeing 747 has 18 wheels - four main units, each with four wheels, and a dual nose-wheel unit.

Apart from the single-wheel main unit, the simplest type is the twin-wheel side-by-side (or dual) arrangement, which is used on many fighters, as well as medium-sized transports such as the Boeing 727 and 737, the Fokker F28 and many turboprop aircraft.

By far the most common arrangement of main units for large aircraft is the dual-tandem layout, also known as a bogey or truck. This is widely used on commercial aircraft, since it gives a good combination of low ground pressure and relatively easy retraction arrangements. The Boeing 747, 757, 767 and the Airbus series are just a few examples of the many aircraft using this arrangement. It is easily capable of retracting forwards or sideways, and the bogey can be rotated to fit into awkward spaces. If necessary, the bogey can be held parallel to the ground during retraction, to allow a shallow well to be used.

Retracting undercarriages.

One of the main reasons for the particular choice of undercarriage arrangement is the problem of retraction. The main units of low-wing aircraft are usually retracted into the wing, which is quite straightforward in most cases. With high-wing aircraft, this would require a long undercarriage, which increases weight. Twin turboprop aircraft have engine nacelles on the wing, and it is quite common to retract the main legs into these nacelles. Otherwise, they must be stowed in the fuselage. However, the points of contact of the undercarriage with the ground must be far enough apart to make the aircraft stable during take-off, landing and taxying, so the shape of the main units can become quite complex.

The tandem undercarriage is rarely used. However, a variation of the tandem arrangement is the jockey unit, which comprises two or three levered legs in tandem on each side of the fuselage, sometimes sharing a common horizontal shock absorber. It is particularly useful for high-wing medium-sized transport aircraft, because the undercarriage is easily retracted into panniers - bulges on the side of the aircraft. This gives a constant width of cargo area in the fuselage, and of course the widest load that can be carried is often restricted by the narrowest point in the load space. Among the advantages of this design are excellent rough-field performance and the ability to `kneel' the aircraft by partially retracting the undercarriage to reduce the slope of loading doors. This is particularly useful where the aircraft is used to transport vehicles. The units also retract into a small space, without pentrating into the load space.
There are a number of other wheel arrangements in use, including tri-twin tandem, dual twin, dual-twin tandem and twin tricycle, but the more complex the type the less commonly it is used. However, as increasingly large aircraft are developed to take maximum advantage of crowded airspace, the number of wheels in undercarriages must be increased to keep ground pressures reasonably low, and limit damage to runways and taxiways.

With combat aircraft, the main undercarriage has another limitation, which is the requirement to clear stores fitted under the fuselage. The undercarriage must not interfere with these stores either in its extended position or during retraction. Many combat aircraft carry under-fuselage stores, and this can result in some rather awkward-looking undercarriage arrangements.

The undercarriage design will normally allow for steering, and a reasonable turn radius is needed for ground maneuvering. At the same time it must have a safety mechanism that prevents the nose wheel from being turned after retraction, and ensures that the wheel is straight for landing.

EASA/FAA wheel repair.

If the undercarriage hits a large obstacle that the aircraft wheels cannot climb, there is a risk that considerable damage may be done to the structure that supports the undercarriage. Shear pins are fitted, which will fail and allow the collapse of the undercarriage before the load rises beyond a safe level. The aircraft will still be damaged, of course, but not to the same extent as it would without this feature. The position of the undercarriage units is very important, particularly the main units. If they are too far forward, the aircraft may tip during loading and taxying. If they are too far aft, the aircraft will pitch forward violently during landing, which could cause the nose leg to collapse. If the main units are not sufficiently wide apart, the aircraft may tend to roll sideways on the ground, especially in side winds and during taxying. If they are too far apart, the aircraft may be prone to ground loops - a sudden violent turn to left or right, perhaps even more than a full circle. The nose leg must also be positioned carefully because its distance from the main units affects the proportion of the total weight that it carries. If it is too lightly loaded, the steering may not be effective, but the load must not be so high as to require the nose leg and associated structure to be unnecessarily strong and heavy. The designer will often be limited by the available structure and, as always, the position may be a compromise.

Most EASA FAA wheel repair is mercifully routine and not as a result of trauma. Airbus Boeing Tucano Honeywell Goodrich and Dunlop aircraft wheels repaired reclaimed and modified can be done at a choice of approved repair facilities.

Aircraft Structures

                       Airframe components

Almost any airframe may be split into four main components:

• the mainplane or wings

• the fuselage or body

• the tail unit (or foreplanes, for a canard-type aircraft)

• mountings for all other systems (undercarriage, engines, etc.)

Each main component is designed to perform a specific task, so that the complete airframe can carry out the job for which it was designed in a safe and efficient way.

Airframe structures and design

All aircraft are made up of a great many individual parts, and each part has its own specific job to do. But even if it were possible to build an aircraft in one single piece, this would not be the best option. Some parts will become damaged, wear out or crack during service, and provision must be made for their repair or replacement. If a part begins to crack, it is imperative that the structure does not fail completely before it is found during maintenance inspections, or the safe operation of the aircraft may be jeopardised. This is the basis of our industry.

The aircraft wings

The wing must generate lift from the airflow over it to support the aircraft in flight. The amount of lift required depends on how the aircraft is flying or manoeuvring. For straight and level flight, the total lift produced must be equal to the weight of the aircraft. To take off and climb, the required lift must be developed at a low airspeed. If the aircraft is to fly in very tight turns, the wing must produce lift equal to perhaps eight times the aircraft weight. For landing, the slowest possible forward speed is required, and enough lift must be produced to support the aircraft at these low speeds. For take-off and landing, lift-augmenting devices are normally added to make this possible - flaps, leading-edge slats, etc. The wing needs to be stiff and strong to resist high lift forces, and the drag forces associated with them.

So it could be argued that the wing is the most essential component of an airframe. In fact, aircraft have been designed which consist only of a wing. More commonly, an arrangement that moves some way towards this ideal can be seen in aircraft like the Boeing B-2, F-117 and delta aircraft like Concorde.

In most large aircraft, the wing carries all or most of the fuel, and also supports the main undercarriage; in military aircraft it often carries a substantial part of weapon loads and other external stores. All of these will impart loads onto the wing structure. This is why the UK contribution to Airbus is a critical one.

The fuselage.

The fuselage serves a number of functions:

It forms the body of the aircraft, housing the crew, passengers or cargo (the payload), and many of the aircraft systems - hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical circuits, electronics.

It forms the main structural link between the wing and tail or foreplanes, holding them at the correct positions and angles to the airflow to allow the aircraft to fly as it was designed to do. The forces transmitted from these components, particularly the wing and tail, generate a variety of types of load on the fuselage. It must be capable of resisting these loads throughout the required life of the aircraft.

Engines may be installed inside or attached to the fuselage, and the forces generated can be very high.

Because of the altitude at which they fly, most modern aircraft have some form of environmental control system (temperature and pressurisation) in the fuselage. The inside of the fuselage is pressurised to emulate a lower altitude than outside, of around 2400 metres (8000 feet) for transport aircraft, and up to 7600 metres (25000 feet) for military aircraft (with crew oxygen), and temperatures are maintained within comfortable limits. These pressure loads generate tensile forces along and around the fuselage, as with the material in an inflated balloon.

These many loading actions can all exist at once, and may vary cyclically throughout the life of the airframe. The fuselage needs to be strong and stiff enough to maintain its integrity for the whole of its design life.

The fuselage is often blended into the wing to reduce drag. In some aircraft it is difficult to see where the fuselage ends and the wing begins.

The tail unit

The tail unit usually consists of a vertical fin with a movable rudder and a horizontal tailplane with movable elevators or an all-moving horizontal tailplane. There is, however, another form of control surface that is finding increasing popularity in fighter aircraft, and even some sport and executive aircraft. In this layout, the horizontal tail surface is replaced or supplemented by moving control surfaces at the nose of the aircraft. These surfaces are called foreplanes, and this layout is known as the canard layout, from the French word for duck, which these aircraft resemble.

Whichever layout is used, these surfaces provide stability and control in pitch and yaw. If an aircraft is stable, any deviation from the path selected will be corrected automatically, because aerodynamic effects generate a restoring effect to bring the aircraft back to its original attitude. Stability can be provided artificially, but initially it will be considered to be achieved by having a tail unit, with a fixed fin and tailplane, and movable control surfaces attached to them. It is an advantage if the tail is as far from the centre of gravity as possible to provide a large lever - it can then be small and light, with low drag. For this reason it is placed at the rear of the fuselage

Forces created by the tail act up and down (by the tailplane), and left and right (by the fin). All of these forces, plus the associated bending and torsion loads, must be resisted and absorbed by the fuselage.

Aerospace composites and the weight of aircraft composite structures.

It is good engineering practice for the design of all parts to be as efficient and economical as possible, keeping weight and cost low. Of course, the requirements of low weight and low cost often conflict. In aircraft low weight and high strength are especially important, and great efforts are made at the design stage to achieve this. The maximum weight of an aircraft is set by its design, and any extra weight taken up by the structure is not available for payload or fuel, reducing its operating efficiency. This is made worse by the weight spiral effect, where an increase in weight in one area means that other areas need to be strengthened to take the extra loads induced. This increases their weight, and may mean more powerful engines or bigger wings are required to maintain the required performance. In this way, an aircraft may become larger or less efficient purely as a result of poor weight control during design.

There are many ways of saving weight, but one of the most common ones is to use improved materials like advanced aerospace composites. Often these may be more expensive, but the extra cost may be justified by the improved performance and reduced operating costs. At the design stage, such questions are the subject of extensive trade-off studies.

Aircraft Maintenance Engineer - Unknown Fact

                        When we are in the airport, a lot of times we can see the pilots and cabin crew walking by us and begin admiring their glamorous career on board the aircraft, but do we know who is the one responsible for the maintenance aspect of the aircraft that they working on? That person is Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers, he is the one responsible to make sure that an aircraft is save to fly, to carry passengers or cargo's from one point to another point.

All aircraft maintenance engineer must have a license from local aviation authority to exercise his privilege which is to certify that an aircraft the he had inspected is fit for release to service.

How to become an engineer? Well, first of all you must have an interest on the aircraft itself because if you don't like it or feel that there is nothing special about an aircraft then it will be more likely that you will not pass the exam or test to get the license. Practical knowledge is essential as it will make it easier to answer the questions in the license exam.

There is a lot of aircraft maintenance engineer training school that offering course to become an aircraft maintenance engineer, in fact Malaysia Airlines as well as Air Asia does have their own training department to recruit new aircraft maintenance engineers.

Training normally will took around 4 to 5 years, Malaysia Airlines for instance will provide an allowances to the trainees that join their training program however they will be bonded for few years once the trainee succeed his training program and established as licensed aircraft maintenance engineer.

Aircraft maintenance engineer can be divided into few categories, it can be Line Aircraft Maintenance Engineer or Base Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, apart from that they furthermore can be divided into trades that they are rated which is either Airframe Maintenance Engineers, Engines Maintenance Engineer, Avionics, Electrical or Radio. Aircraft Maintenance Engineer can be multiple trade as well. Normally Airframe Engineer will hold Engine license. Electrical, Avionic and Radio Aircraft maintenance engineer normally has all 3 rating with them.

Line Aircraft Maintenance Engineer normally attached in front line of service as they handle the aircraft for departure or in transit in the airport terminal while Base Aircraft Maintenance Engineer is the person who will inspect an aircraft when it is in the hangar for major inspection.

For trade classification, Airframe Maintenance Engineer will responsible to the defect or inspection related to the airframe part of an aircraft which is the fuselage, flight control, hydraulic, air conditioning system, including the passenger seats and so on. Engine Maintenance Engineer for the engine and auxiliary power unit of an aircraft, same goes for other trade. However only Airframe and Engine rated aircraft maintenance engineer has the privilege to release an aircraft back to service (flight) as a whole, for instance if there is a defect of electrical component, electrical maintenance engineer will rectify it however he will only certifying whatever job he did, before the aircraft can fly, the airframe and engine engineer then inspect the aircraft base on the inspection procedure laid down by the manufacturer and then certify that the aircraft is safe to fly. Certification will be in a form of signature plus the approval number from authority or company, stamped or be wrote down on the aircraft legal document which will be on board. One copy of the signed document will be leave on the ground before the door of the aircraft close for departure.

Once he put his signature in that document, he is responsible for the safety of the aircraft, the passengers, the cargo as well as the crews. Anything happen to the aircraft, licensed maintenance engineer that released the aircraft for flight will be the one that will be called by the aviation authority for an investigation. Base on this information I'm sure know the readers will realize who has the biggest responsibility once the aircraft lift off from the ground.

experimental fighter aircraft

                        A recent think thank has suggested a concept of using a concept of expandable, inflatable, extendable wings in UAVs and fighter Aircraft. In this concept it was debated whether aerodynamic current methodology and design would apply. Such a concept in fact would transcend many current and future technologies. So there was some discussion on similar known aerodynamic theory and most of those close to such concepts would agree with what has been said for the most part, it is good common sense. For instance the need for simplicity and the weight and complexity of motors and moving parts.
And in thinking on this one would see the benefits of "no or few extra parts and complexity" as we must be concerned with EA; "electronic attack" in the future. The more electronic components the more problem for failure or "Murphy'ism!" The USAF Research Lab discusses this in their recent annual report. Simplicity of material memory and no motors means less space needed so more is available for fuel. In a UAV design using these concepts we also can lose the pilot for less space, cost and complexity.
It makes sense, but one would think that we can do better, using some of these new technologies and materials. We know quite a bit about what is needed from so much research in the past;
Some in the think tank had indicated the need for Stealth being on of the keys to survival. Many tend to agree with much of that line of reasoning. Indeed, in the future warfare will be so fast that he who sees first and shoots first, wins forever. There would of course be no points for second place and absolutely no need for a mandatory or regulated on-going educational requirement, you would be no longer amongst the living. So, with that said stealth and in the future: cloaking, being invisible or coming in from an out of time and space dimension would be worthy. For now; speed, rapid fire, multiple targets, net-centric instantaneous BLOS are the other necessary components of the game. In the future you can add; faster than light communication and quantum computing to that. It will all be here before we know it, in respect to the whole of known written human history.
The idea of using material memory for the leading edge/end-cap makes sense and yes a change out there at high speed would immediately cause a roll of the airframe. Just like racing motorcycles, after you hit 150 mph if you move your helmet 2-4 inches you are immediately in the next lane. It does not take much. Ailerons really are quite responsive at those speeds; spoilers used for maneuvering are as well. I doubt the canard type system to stabilize at high speeds makes sense at all. But a small protruding airfoil change at high-speed makes a big difference. We know this from missile technology?
Much of the issues with flight control for roll rates, pitch and yaw have been done already and there would be no reason to complicate those issues only use additional technologies to incorporate the material memory and expandable parts for slow speeds. Hopefully you will remember the NASA Tests of the fold out wings on a UAV, which was dropped from a transport plane. Has Mars UAV mission applications as a drone also, as well as a flying communication and surveillance component. Dryden Test of the 2001 if you will recall; see the Wing deployment sequence using the deployable Inflatable wing technology demonstrator. The experimental wings are fully deployed during flight following separation from its carrier aircraft; it is an entire wing, not just a section of wing as in the expandable, inflatable, extendable wings in UAVs and Fighter Aircraft concept in the think tank discussions using a strong hard leading edge/spar concept.
Also the Navy's "Monarch" has expandable wings once deployed, many UAVs also have expandable wings prior to flight and many loitering missile concepts have wings, which depart in flight when ready to attack target. The original idea was more in line with a flying car with an expandable wing, here is another thought on this issue:
There needs to be research and some test and evaluation using the newest new inflatable material, which has the capacity to take on the required wing loading of a fighter aircraft. We need to be thinking here.

Homebuilt Experimental Aircraft

                          In the twenties, the first aircraft plans offered for sale to the amateur market were for the Baby Ace airplane. There was limited interest for building planes at home during the 30s depression years. The 40s were all about the war, and countless thousands became pilots during World War II. When these pilots came home after the war, many of them wanted to have an airplane of their own to fly. In the fifties amateur aircraft building gained much popularity. In 1953 the EAA or Experimental Aircraft Association was founded.
Up until 1950, home-built aircraft were either wood or steel tube and cloth. Without the regulatory restriction the aircraft manufacturers had to work under, home-built design and construction techniques could be more innovative. Burt Rutan Introduced the canard design, and pioneered the use of building with composite materials. Kit planes were introduced with metal construction by Richard Van Grunsven with his RV series.
The 70s and 80s were boom times for ultralights, and thousands built inexpensive kits and took to the air. There was also much litigation during this time and many small aircraft companies went out of business or consolidated. Today the range is wide when it comes to the home-built aircraft industry, from a tube of aircraft blueprints for a few hundred dollars, to the high-end Lancair Propjet kit that cruises at 425 mph at 24,000 feet. Home-builders of aircraft have a wide selection of designs, construction techniques and material, to build their dream aircraft.
Home-built aircraft can be built from plans where the builder builds every part from scratch. From plans and some ready made components to speed things up, or kit-built. Quick build kits where many subassemblies are ready made or partially assembled to speed up the building process are available for many of the kits. Having a couple of thousand rivet holes drilled and aligned properly can make a quick build kit tempting for some. It's a tradeoff between time and money. There tends to be two types of experimental aircraft builders, the flyer-builder and the builder-flyer. More on these two types in my next article.