My first career path I
: flew Tomcats. Big areas of the bird's surfaces were made up of a boron
: epoxy laminate, as was the radome of every bird I flew. The stuff is hard
: and ungiving, imagine hitting what I think was a sea bird while going
: approximately 300 knots off Pt. Mugu...a massive thump and blur of
: feathers, and on landing, just a smear over the radome and TCS housing.
: The energy released at impact must have been tremendous.

Oh, no, not a Tomgrape driver... didn't you get a sore neck from looking over your shoulder at us Hornet guys, listening to "Fox 1, Fox 2, Guns on, that's a kill", while futilely squirting chaff/flares ?

Uh, tanker posit?

Seriously, thanks for the posts. I think this structural stuff is extremely interesting. I have some questions about this whole fiberglass/epoxy thing, and I have some real gaps in my knowledge regarding same. These kinds of threads are great, IMHO. My personal quest is to shift increasing amounts of structural resposiblity in my yaks from composites to the wood. Partly, I suppose, because I understand wood better, partly, too, to my aviation experience.

Have fun- Mike