Pre-war and post-war weight difference

[ftcts]

Hello all,
Why are the pre-war Taylorcrafts (BL65, BC65) lighter than the post-war Taylorcrafts (BC12D)? The specs list them as 90 lbs different with the same HP engine. I can guess at some of the weight, such as the addition of another door and a tail wheel, but I can't come up with the rest. How much of it is fuselage, wings, interior, etc?

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Pre-war and post-war weight difference

From my factory records I found:
Lets take a 1940 BLT ser# 1768 Lyc engine at 646# vs. a BC ser# 1783 at 712 # within 20 ser#'s April 1940..... then we can jump up to ser# 2648 a BC12 at 757# ( Gross wt is 1200 lbs.) ser#2627 was at 781 #...... Then we have BC12D's at 805 mine is 815 ( with 24 gals , metal prop, wheel pants) IT always seemed to me that the earlier ships with the 1025 vs 4130 steel tubes up front , open cowl, light wt fabric & dope, sparce interior, etc.. were as light as could be . THEN the weight increases seemed to be a natural progression as people wanted more goodies. Wooden doors, sound prooofing, more dope, fancy paint schemes , deluxe ships with chrome and other goodies....radio , instruments. I think if you found something with 90 lb difference those were the extreme ranges. The metal props , wheels pants , three fuel tanks etc. are the heavy ships.... Hope this helps. Bye Forrest WE did find that an inexperienced welder could add 8 lbs to the fuselage real quick....

[Dick Smith]

Re: Pre-war and post-war weight difference

I wonder what this one weighed? (scroll down after opening this link) :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2293403318&category=40051

Dick

[Len Petterson]

Re: Pre-war and post-war weight difference

KZU is a heavy weigth after what Forest is saying, 877 lbs.
It has an Airtex interior looks nice and offers some sound proffing,BUT!
Whats left after full fuel and me is 0 lbs
Does anyone know how much the interior pakage weigh?
Ok I know Doc said to loose 50 Lbs.
Len