My name is David West and my father William is the one who did the stress analysis on the Starduster. I've only recently joined this forum and I have found some posts asking about a stress analysis done. As far as I know there wasn't an "official" one done. I tried to answer some of those posts but this forum kept telling me I wasn't registered (I registered last month) so that's why I've started a new thread...some of you may not know this was done.
My father wanted to build a starduster and wanted to change the wood wings to metal so he asked Lou Stolp for a copy of the analysis and was told that there had never been one done. He asked how he designed the airplane and was told "good building practices" My father, being an aeronatical engineer, did his own analysis to verify load ratings. When he had it half done he took it out and showed it to Lou. Lou said he wanted my dad to finish it and said he would give him a welded up fuselage for his efforts. My dad did that but for various reasons, long story short, he never got the fuselage and never built the airplane. My father passed away several years ago, but I still have the original report that he did, sitting on a bookshelf in a bedroom. I'm not sure if it would be any use to anyone but if you'd like to contact me my email is: [email protected]
My father wanted to build a starduster and wanted to change the wood wings to metal so he asked Lou Stolp for a copy of the analysis and was told that there had never been one done. He asked how he designed the airplane and was told "good building practices" My father, being an aeronatical engineer, did his own analysis to verify load ratings. When he had it half done he took it out and showed it to Lou. Lou said he wanted my dad to finish it and said he would give him a welded up fuselage for his efforts. My dad did that but for various reasons, long story short, he never got the fuselage and never built the airplane. My father passed away several years ago, but I still have the original report that he did, sitting on a bookshelf in a bedroom. I'm not sure if it would be any use to anyone but if you'd like to contact me my email is: [email protected]
