Standard Pilot Blog: steel fuselage

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Steel Fuselages, Revisited

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Chromaloy steel is amazing. It used to be our only product offering -- but has been supplanted by aluminum due to substantially reduced costs in favor of aluminum. Most of the times, the customers vote for aluminum.

When the steel is built with thin wall 0.028 tubing, it is virtually identical to aluminum in weight.

Steel fuselages are very much still on our offering sheet. They're just expensive, relative to the aluminum option. We currently charge an upcharge of $2000 over the aluminum option, but this will be going up. It takes us 5 to 6 man weeks of welding and fabrication time to make the steel fuselages. Add in the cost of the steel, the welding supplies, and overhead, and they cost us a lot to make.

This particular steel fuselage is heading to the bay area in California.

I'm simply posting 20 or 25 photos of this particular fuselage, complete with front cabin dacron covering. It still needs some UV protection -- a little EkoFill to finish the job.

We build these in our factory jigs, which is why they turn out so square and lovely.

I weighed this particular fuselage before we covered it. It was 37 pounds.

Belite Ultralight Aircraft Steel Fuselage