Aircraft Covering, Finishes & Wood Structures

Vocabulary flashcards covering the history of aviation pioneers, composite and wood aircraft structures, and inspection procedures for aircraft wood and glued joints.

Wright Brothers

Orville and Wilbur Wright, known as "First in Flight," who invented, built, and flew the world's first successful powered aircraft on December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

George Cayley

Pioneer known as "The Father of Aeronautics" who designed the first successful human-carrying glider in 1853, identified the four forces of flight (Lift, Weight, Thrust, and Drag), and introduced fixed-wing aircraft design.

Otto Lilienthal

Pioneer known as "Fly man" and "The Glider King" who made repeated, well-documented glider flights based on studies of bird flight and introduced standard horizontal and vertical fins.

Octave Chanute

Aviation pioneer known as "The Bridge Builder of Aviation" who published "Progress in Flying Machines" in 1894 and built and tested biplane hang gliders with his team.

Louis Bleriot

Aviator known as "The Man Who Crossed the Channel by Air" who became the first person to fly across the English Channel in 1909 using a single-engine monoplane he designed.

Hugo Junkers

Designer famous for creating the Junkers J 1 in 1910, which was the world's first practical all-metal aircraft.

Curtiss HS-2L

An early aircraft featuring a flying boat hull design that utilized semi-monocoque construction.

Breguet 14

A 1930s stacked-wing, fabric-covered aircraft.

De Havilland Mosquito

Known as "The Wooden Wonder," this light, fast, and unarmed aircraft designed by the De Havilland Aircraft Company was the first composite structure aircraft and first flew on November 25, 1940.

H-4 Hercules

Also known as "The Spruce Goose" or "Goddess of Wood Aircraft," a 300,000-pound aircraft with a 320-foot wingspan made mostly of birch; piloted by Howard Hughes on November 2, 1947.

Hygroscopic

The characteristic of wood structure that allows it to absorb and release moisture from the surrounding environment.

Moisture Meter Inspection Methods

Techniques for measuring wood moisture content using either destructive pin meters that pass an electrical current flow or non-destructive meters that use an electromagnetic field and sensor plate.

Wood Moisture Content Limits

Moisture standards for aircraft wood structure: $8\% - 12\%$ is normal moisture content, $7\% - 0\%$ indicates glue failure risk, and $12\% - 20\%$ requires visual checking.

Stressed Skin Structure

An aircraft structural design consisting of ply skins attached over internal wooden support members.

Distorted Single Plywood Structure

A wood structure suffering from surface warping or deformation, requiring investigation of splits in fabric covering to confirm if the underlying plywood skin is serviceable.

Musty or Moldy Odor Indicator

An indicator noticed upon removing access panels during initial inspection that points to moisture, fungal growth, and possible decay within the wood structure.

Glued Joint Deterioration Factors

Common factors leading to premature glue failure, including chemical reactions from aging, moisture, or extreme temperatures; mechanical forces from wood shrinkage; and fungal growth.