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to school eight hours a day, five days a week, for fourteen months, then passed long and rigorous written
and practical exams. Nearly all of what I learned in that time is orthogonal to what a pilot learns. The idea
that J. Random Pilot from the twenty-first century would know anything about building and maintaining
wooden aircraft is laughable. There were no A&P mechanics in the Ring of Fire let alone any of my
era so most of what I'm going to talk about below is unknown in Grantville.
Further, as a mechanic I know how to maintain and repair aircraft using mostly off-the-shelf parts and
materials. I don't know how to design one. For that you need an aerospace engineer and there is only
one in the Ring of Fire, Hal Smith. (Mike Spehar managed to grandfather him in before the Grid became
so rigid.) I don't know how to make the precursor chemicals for dope. For that you need a chemist. I
don't know how to make the high quality steel to make the wires, nuts, bolts, etc., you need to hold an
aircraft together. For that you need a metallurgist. Except in the most general terms, I don't even know
how to make a propeller, let alone design one. Trial and error will have to serve.
The following description of the building and maintenance of fabric-covered, wood-framed aircraft is
going to include a lot of fiddly details and requirements. Some of them are going to be difficult to
implement in the seventeenth century. Whether they are implemented or not is up to the fiction authors,
but they should be aware of this:A lot of airplanes crashed and a lot of people died to put those
details and standards in place. None of them are entirely frivolous. If you want your airplanes to be
credibly able to fly from Peetle to Pootle without crashing six times along the way and want your pilots
and passengers to be anything but suicidal daredevils, you'll leave them in place. Also note that even
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modern private aircraft are inspected annually, commercial aircraft are also inspected every 100 hours of
flight and military aircraft are inspected daily, so problems can be detected and repaired early. Finally,
when feasible, every pilot does a walk-around inspection of his aircraft before taking it up.
It's been suggested to me that outside of Jesse Wood's air force, down-time pilots will be daredevils.
Even if you aren't concerned about their safety, consider the safety of your precious engines, instruments
and even rubber tires. Youcan't afford to build airplanes that crash and burn at every pause in the
conversation.
So, let's begin.
Tools
First is a list of theminimum woodworking tools required to maintain a wood framed aircraft. Most of
them should be available or makeable in the seventeenth century. Space limits prevent me from
describing each one and its use. Mechanics learn about them in the practical shop part of their training.
Backsaw (14 to 18 teeth per inch)
Small bucking bar
Auger bits
Brace
C-clamps
Parallel wood clamps (Jorgenson)
Scribe compass (10 inch, thumbscrew lock)
Hand drill
Twist drills (1/16 to 1/4 inch)
Flashlight
Hammer
Magnetic tack hammer
Pocket knife
Block plane
Jack plane
Diagonal cutting pliers
Coarse wood rasp (half round)
Fine wood rasp (half round)
Dovetail saw
Crosscut hand saw (10 to 14 teeth per inch)
Keyhole saw
Rip saw (5 to 6 teeth per inch)
Screwdrivers
Combination square
Straightedge (36 to 48 inches)
The wooden frame is covered with fabric and the tools for working with that are the same as those used
by a tailor or upholsterer. They include assorted needles, scissors, pinking shears, sewing machines and
irons. The fabric, in turn, is covered with dope, which I'll talk more about under the materials heading.
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Dope is applied like paint, with brushes or, if available, a paint sprayer.
Even wooden airplanes have metal parts and fittings and for them you need the usual wrenches and
screwdrivers and drills (oh my!). To fabricate the parts from raw stock, you'll need the resources of a
machine shop or a blacksmith.
In addition to these mostly generic tools, there are specialty tools needed for doing things that only
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