Pietenpol Air Camper Photographs and additional

How To Build A Pietenpol Air Camper or Sky Scout
Aeroplane

"Bernard Pietenpol never lost sight of the cost of
flying and showed his true genius in
keeping it down - within reach of the common
man"

Let's discuss what makes up a
Pietenpol Airship (Air Camper or Sky
Scout)!!!

(Overview)

Fuselage:

The longerons are made of 1 inch by 1 inch sitka
spruce. All struts and braces are milled from 1 inch
by 3/4 inch sitka spruce. All wooden pieces are
glued together and held in place with rectangular
wood gussetts cut from 1/8 inch aircraft grade
plywood glued down with aircraft glue, and held in
place by small aircraft brads while the glue is
setting. The forward half of the fuselage is covered
on both sides with 1/4 inch aircraft plywood. The
plywood only extends from the firewall to back of
the rear seat. Once the sides are assembled, they
are uprighted on a workbench and joined together
with struts and braces cut to provide tapering from
the rear seat to the tail where the two sides will
join. Quarter inch aircraft plywood is used for the
floor of the cockpit, and firewall. Turtle Deck: A
turtle deck is created aft rear cockpit seat to
facilitate crowning atop rear fuselage. This is
accomplished by seven 1 inch x 1/4 inch sitka
spruce stringers set on edge to create what Mr.
Pietenpol called a "Streamlined appearance".

Wing:

The wing is a one piece wing without any dihedral.
The wing spans 28 feet 2 inches, giving it 140
square feet. Also plans are available for a three
piece wing of the same length. Building a three
piece wing is recommended when building space is
of value. The three piece wing requires the
additional building of a few extra wooden pieces,
and metal fittings. The wing is built up with 28 ribs.
The ribs are easily built in a homemade jig (no
steaming required). Each rib is built out of 1/4
inch by 1/2 inch cap strip. This size capstrip is also
used as rig struts which hold the top rib cap strip
to the bottom cap strip. All ribs are held together
by 1/16 in. aircraft plywood gussetts 1 in by 3/4
in. The ribs are hung on two 28 foot long sitka
spruce spars of identical size (4 3/4 in. x 1 in
x 28 foot). Each spar can be made of two 15 foot
spars spliced together (Very common). If you are
building a three piece wing, each spar is then
made up of three smaller length spars, with no
splicing required (very common). Leading and
trailing edges are made of sitka spruce and are
added.

Tail Feathers:

The tail group ( rudder, vertical and horizontal
stabilizers) are built just like the fuselage and
wings with sitka spruce spars, wide capstrips, and
plywood gussets.

Covering:

The choice is yours! When Mr. Pietenpol built his
airships in the 20�s and 30�s, Ceconite wasn�t even
invented. Grade A aero cotton was used. Today
Ceconite works well. Newer technologies exist that
work very good (Stits process). The wing, uselage,
and tail feathers are covered. Interior of fuselage
is finished with three coats of spar aero/marine
varnish, sanding between coats.

Engine:

Over time, Mr. Pietenpol built Air Camper�s with
Ford Model A engines, and lightweight
aircraft engines; with appearances from
Continental (A-65), Lycoming, Franklin, and
yes the boxer style type Corvair auto engine
(110hp) (All very good!).

Your own set of "Original plans":

To build a Pietenpol Air Camper or Sky Scout, first
you need a set of plans available
from Donald Pietenpol, and a work bench. For
building tips, and construction detail ,
the builders manual "Original Air Camper & Sky
Scout Builders Manual" is recommended.

Fuselage fittings:

The rudder is controlled by simple U-foot pedals
attached to the cross members. The control cables
are simply fastened to the control stick. All wing
and tail feather fittings, and the landing gear are
built of 4130 aircraft steel.

Changes over the years:

Of course there were changes over the past 65+
years, but mainly to the powerplant. Over time, Mr.
Pietenpol built Air Camper�s with lightweight
aircraft engines; with appearances from
Continental (A-65), Lycoming, Franklin, and yes
the flat six boxer type Corvair auto engine (110hp)
(All very good!). When Mr. Pietenpol used light
weight aircraft engines, or Corvair engine he
added 6 inches of length to the fuselage. These,
and all changes over time are reflected in the Air
Camper plans. You can build it with any of these
engines. They all work great! Plan on spending
600+ hours of wonderful fun and rewarding time
building your Pietenpol Air Camper or Sky Scout!

Constructions Airplane Photos - (Skin on, and Skin
Off