As a community we discuss aircraft types a lot, the pros and cons of each and their suitability for a specific operational realm etc. So here's my question for those far more knowledgeable then I. Discounting "brand loyalties" which style of fuselage structure can accept or withstand a greater amount of "bending & twisting" before it yields to the forces it's being subjected too.

I rode inside 4130 steel tubing cages, like a race car driver, through three crashes that totally bent the tubing but did not give me even a scratch. The bending and twisting, without coming in on me, seemed to help. I only had one crash with high tech materials. The Cobra in Vietnam held up well, however. Magnezium semi-monocock or something I think. Held up well in jungle foliage. No big loach eaters.

I’ve had 2 crashes in Ag Cat’s, one particularly nasty, and have a small scratch on one hand to show for it. I’ll take a steel tube structure every time.

I heard a story about a Bellanca Viking crashing into a high rise building and the pilot got out and told people to evacuate. Bellanca and Mooney are the two I heard were the toughest.

I would say properly built 4130 tubing, because aluminum aircraft are not built with crush zones. DENNY

Zircon Edge. +/- 20gs

Too hard of a choice- I'll just have a Helio please!

-DP

Well, this one worked out okay.....the Doors still opened afterwards. So, one vote for monocoque structures....



Aluminum monocoque structures are incredibly strong. I'm a believer in steel tube fuselages as well, BUT,

The bottom line is, the pilot has to do some of that pilot shit to slow down the arrival, so you use up structure instead of lives.

In this one, the only injury I had was the back of my left calf flailed and hit one of the adjustment knobs on my seat. Punched a nice divot in my calf. No big deal.

MTV

Yikes, that's insane skipper

180Marty wrote:I heard a story about a Bellanca Viking crashing into a high rise building and the pilot got out and told people to evacuate. Bellanca and Mooney are the two I heard were the toughest.

I feel very safe with my family in my wood-wing, chrome moly tube fuselage Super Viking, if the engine dies in that i’m pretty certain we’re walking away… not so much in the bubble canopy RV….

Also am interested in selling the Viking and getting into a Husky; if anyone knows of something.


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Myers 200 for the ultimate in strength

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Not that it bends and twits over time and distance, but the low wing is a thing of beauty to crash on. If it is level. Floats seem good, but gears go away without bending and twisting over time. I was lucky enough in all but one crash not to ever be in the part of the airplane that absorbed the energy of the crash. That one crash was in a high wing and it almost killed me. In a high wing without floats, the pilot hits first. In a high wing, wings level doesn't help as much as with a low wing to absorb the energy of the crash.