NEW Taylorcraft design features

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

The "Factory" is building parts. I spent the day in the "Factory" making a new main tank fuel cut off lever, the clip that goes around the knob, some cowl parts, new floor boards, a wiring diagram to put the electrical system back in my plane (the wires, no electronics), a new compass correction card holder and talked to Forrest about how to secure my windshield to the boot cowl.
The "Factory" is making parts like mad!
By the way, whoever wanted the metal bands that go between the windshield and boot cowl on the post war drape formed (found out today they were NOT blown!) windshields, I have mine home now and will be able to make a buck to make them. Don't hold your collective breaths. It curves three ways and making one will be a tough job. I won't be making an attempt till the 41 is flying.
Anyone else live close to Virginia Beach who wants to learn metal bumping? It's not hard, but it does require lots of patience and practice to get it right.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

The "Factory" is building parts. I spent the day in the "Factory" making a new main tank fuel cut off lever, the clip that goes around the knob, some cowl parts, new floor boards, a wiring diagram to put the electrical system back in my plane (the wires, no electronics), a new compass correction card holder and talked to Forrest about how to secure my windshield to the boot cowl.
The "Factory" is making parts like mad!
By the way, whoever wanted the metal bands that go between the windshield and boot cowl on the post war drape formed (found out today they were NOT blown!) windshields, I have mine home now and will be able to make a buck to make them. Don't hold your collective breaths. It curves three ways and making one will be a tough job. I won't be making an attempt till the 41 is flying.
Anyone else live close to Virginia Beach who wants to learn metal bumping? It's not hard, but it does require lots of patience and practice to get it right.

I am employed there as well, funny how we have never met. lol.

I built a windshield band for the last 2 L-2M's we did. Used .050 3003 H-14, a brake, shrinker/strecher, and torch to anneal it a few times. Took about 3 hours to make, and was very happy with the result

[VictorBravo]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

I am employed there as well, funny how we have never met. lol.

Huh ?????????

[Dano"T"]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

Hey Bill.....I think he means he's his own Taylorcraft factory. Makin parts like crazy.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

If the Foundation had bought the rights to the Taylorcraft I think we would have had a number of cottage industry "factories" making individual parts and warehousing them for inspection and acceptance at a single site. Think of the Folke Wolf factory in WW-II Germany. It is a very workable industrial plan. Of course all of the finish work would have been at the official "factory" and the paperwork would have shown each cottage manufacturer as a sub-contractor. It CAN be done, and if done right can reduce costs tremendously.
Hank

[mulwyk]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

Great idea Hank.
The "factory" would include the shipping and receiving, quality control, and sales functions. Subcontractors/owners would produce the parts. The factory would only need to have a couple offices and a modest size storage space.

Now you've got me dreaming!

[fearofpavement]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

Bill, with you being one of the masters of inuendo and vague intimations to protect the guilty, how did you miss that excellently vague exchange of the factory workers?

[guns68]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

I have only owned my aircraft for just under a year. So I guess I'm enrolled in the self paced apprenticeship program.
Thank goodness for this site. Without it my learning curve would be very steep indeed (and much more expensive).

[VictorBravo]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

Bill, with you being one of the masters of inuendo and vague intimations to protect the guilty, how did you miss that excellently vague exchange of the factory workers?

I'm apparently not as smart as I appear... please don't tell my wife

My hat's off to Mike and Hank for their excellent Owner Produced postings on the forum...

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

One of the biggest requirements for the formal "factory" is to not only collect and distribute the parts, but to make them LEGAL and not just garage built counterfeits. The "real factory" has to inspect and certify each part to insure that it meets all of the material and quality specs to be used as a legal component. The "real factory" can't sell parts made by someone who isn't legal to make them, so finding the point between what is built in my garage and what is sold by Taylorcraft would be a critical line in the production schedule of the part.
It isn't easy, but it is far from impossible.
Hank

[jim cooper]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

The Germans had a BIG plus. During WW2 much of their labor force was slave labor. Munitions, aircraft, tanks etc. much of it built by people captured and forced to work or be killed. Many died regardless from starvation. Very low overhead, no strikes, very few complaints, no arbitration. Meanwhile Ford Motor Co. was turning out a B-24 every 30 minutes when they really got rolling! Amazing what this country did! I'll be seeing my uncle in July. 20 years old when he bailed out of B-24 at Polesti. 459th Bomb Group. 2nd Lt. Captured by germans, 1 year POW, went on to fly B-52s! 29 years in service retired as Lt. Col. He's 87, still plays golf once in a while. JC

[jim cooper]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

I really like to slip. Wheel or stick all the way over, opposite rudder to the floor, down to about 10-20 feet, straighten out and a little nose high start stalling it. Sometimes I look real good, like in the movies, other times it isn't so good. Usually the bad ones are not waiting for it to slow down that last few seconds, but I can usually correct that with just a little throttle. I have seen others grease it almost every time on asphalt. They are usually wheel landing it. I'm lousy at that. T-Crafts are a blast to fly, good looking and forgiving. JC

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

The best workers are the ones who are really motivated by a desire to be a part of something great (like us). They also have very low overhead, don't strike or complain and since they have a real stake in the game, don't seek arbitration.

I'm not saying we should use slave labor. Slave laborers also have a tendency to put sugar in the concrete, machine to the wrong finish or dimension and generally mess things up whenever they think they can't be caught (and more power to them!)

Just because the people who used distributed manufacturing in Nazi Germany used slave labor doesn't mean the distributed process is bad. Slavery was what was bad. The Nazis also played Beethoven. I still like the music while condemning the Nazis.

We must be on the same line of thought. We both like slips!

Hank

[jim cooper]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

German factorys were diversified and put in out of the way places because we were bombing the living shit out of their citys . Even with this they did amazingly well. The best productive workers, who really put out the goods are paid well for their work, are allowed to put forward their ideas to management, and are not treated like mushrooms. The best illustration of this would be companys like Honda, who came to the U.S. and literally buried GM, quality wise and longevity wise. Catapillar is another company that did very well with quality product, good working conditions and companys like Komatsu and Hitachi (who builds alot of John Deere) giving them stiff competition. To say one should not complain or question the people running the work place is foolhardy and dangerous. An excellent example would be the complete breakdown on Wall Street where greed took over and the taxpayer got screwed. Ross Perot invested 750 million in G.M., BEGGED them to change, (too many wrong decisions) They told him to get lost when he COMPLAINED and paid him off. Apparently, he was right! Lousy management. Ross also said "FAIR Trade, NOT Free Trade. Right about that too! I voted for Ross and miss him. JC

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: NEW Taylorcraft design features

Jim,
I guess you lost me here. I thought we were talking (and dreaming) about a way for us to all be involved in the resurrection of the Taylorcraft design.
No one is talking about forcing anyone to do anything. We are talking about my (and anyone else who want to) making a bunch of parts from the tool we use to make one for our own plane, then passing those parts on to others in the Tribe for them to use. Just makes sense that we can all help out in a cottage industry model.
Nobody is going to bomb us (unless we really start threatening the J-3 guys and how much of a bomb load can they carry anyway?) We aren't talking about war production, we are talking about making Pretzel wheel hubs, fuel cut off valve arms and placards. Maybe a few pulleys if someone needs them.
We ARE The management in this model (this was assuming the Taylorcraft factory goes up on the block again and we go together and buy the rights). If we are mushrooms it's because we walked into the dark room under no duress and stood in the cow manure. None of the major manufacturers is going to pick up Taylorcraft because there is no money in it. We wouldn't be doing it to make money. Wrong model.
I have NO idea what Taylorcraft has to do with Wall Street. I doubt anyone on Wall Street has ever heard of Taylorcraft.
Greed? We are talking about doing this for the cost of the material for the good of the Tribe. Where is the Greed? If I wanted to get rich I sure wouldn't try to by making Taylorcraft parts.
Maybe I'm missing something. Why are you so angry?

Hank