Highest Quality Wood

Wood As An Aircraft Construction Material?

Wood has been used in the construction of aircraft since the notion of flight first intrigued mankind.

Wood is a natural material that grows throughout the forests of the world and, is in fact, the only aircraft material not manufactured by man. Easy workability, competitive price, and a cost that is lower than most other aircraft construction materials, has meant that wood has become a familiar medium for most people to work in. Who hasn't taken a piece of wood and built something with it?

Pick a design from the multitude of plans available and start building your aircraft; it will be one of the most exciting and rewarding projects you have ever been involved in.

Wood's ease of workability requires a minimum of special tools to produce an outstanding finished product. Wood repairs relatively easily. Wood is less prone to the effects of vibration and, unlike some other materials, does not develop fatigue cracks from repeated stress and vibration. The natural characteristics of wood usually result in a lighter and quieter craft than those constructed from other materials. Today's glues and protective coatings can provide the wooden aircraft with a life that should span decades. Quality products for aircraft construction costs more than materials found at your local wood supply store but, please remember you are contemplating building an aircraft. The actual price of the airframe is one of the less expensive components when you consider the cost of your finished aircraft with powerplant, avionics, etc. Western Aircraft Supplies Ltd. maintains an extensive inventory of spruce and the majority of our material is sawn at our location.

We travel to sites throughout the Pacific Northwest in search of logs and inventory. Trees are inspected in the field and then transported to our facility for manufacture. Wood, as we have mentioned, is a natural product and therefore requires extensive time and effort to ensure our customers receive only the best products. Less than 10% of the material we inspect is suitable for aircraft use and for this reason we do not supply raw boards or lumber.

All wood is custom cut and manufactured to our customer's plan specifications resulting in a finished-machined product requiring minimal labour by the builder. The fact is that quality Sitka has become a very rare commodity and experience has shown that our customers realize a cost saving by purchasing a finished milled plan component.

Too often heard is the story that a builder purchases raw board(s) thinking of a substantial saving only to find that upon machining, the material is questionable or unusable. Sorry to say, the days of cheap and plentiful aircraft sitka are gone.

 Available Species of Aircraft Wood

Sitka Spruce (Picca Sitchensis) Western Aircraft Supplies Ltd.'s Primary Specie, Sitka Spruce occurs in a narrow strip (rarely extending over 40 miles inland) along the Pacific Coast from northern California to Alaska. In the humid Coast forests it produces trunks 3 feet to 12 feet in diameter with heights reaching 250 feet. Wood is fairly light and soft and varies from creamish to pale buff in colour. It is light and has greater strength than woods of similar weight. It is stiff, has a considerable degree of toughness, and can be worked with ease. These properties have made it the most generally used wood for wing beams and struts, and large quantities are employed for longerons, ribs, and plywood. Although there is no great difference in strength properties of red, white, and sitka spruce, the later specie on account of its greater size and consequently its larger proportion of clear lumber, is a more important source of aircraft material than the other two.	White Spruce (Picea Canadensis/glauca) Found ranging from Montana to Alaska. Ordinarily a tree is 1 to 3 feet in diameter with height to 140 feet. Wood is soft, straight grained and creamy white in colour. Ideal wood for the structural parts of aircraft, because the characteristics of lightness and ease of working are combined with great strength, stiffness, and freedom from hidden defects. Red, White and Sitka Spruce do not greatly differ in strength properties, but Sitka Spruce reaches much larger sizes and, therefore produces a larger proportion of clear lumber suitable for aircraft.	Western Hemlock (tsuga hetrophylla) Hemlock is found from Idaho to Alaska and along the Coast and Cascade Ranges. Trunks are usually 3 - 4 feet in diameter and reaches heights of 200 feet. Hemlock is slightly heavier than spruce and equals or exceeds that specie in its strength properties, although it is somewhat less uniform in texture.
	Douglas Fir (Pseudatquga taxifalia /menziesii) (AKA Oregon Pine) Only the stands west of the Cascade Range, from Northern California to British Columbia, contain a considerable proportion of material suitable for aircraft construction. Douglas fir is a very satisfactory substitute for spruce in making wing beams, longerons, struts, and engine bearers and has been so used to a considerable extent. While somewhat heavier than spruce, and more liable to check and shake during manufacture, in its strength properties it is equal or superior to spruce of the same size.