Duct Tape Can be Great

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M

MIflyer

1st Lieutenant
7,166
14,821
May 30, 2011
Cape Canaveral
Too bad it's no good for sealing ducts.
During a private fly-in fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness,
the chartered pilot and fishermen left a cooler and bait in the plane.
And a bear smelled it. This is what he did to the plane.​









The pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him 2 new tires,
3 cases of duct tape, and a supply of sheet plastic.
He patched the plane together, and FLEW IT HOME ! ​


 
I wonder how long it'll be before somebody builds a duct-tape skinned aircraft (wings, fuselage, etc) j/k.

In the 1930's there was doped Irish linen which was basically fabric fitted with a doping. Duct tape is made out of an (often) synthetic fabric laminated to low-density polyethylene. Essentially, it's a doped fabric (A different fabric which is often rayon, polyester, nylon, fiberclass, or cotton, sure).

Interestingly, it was actually called "Duck Tape" because it was made out of something called "Cotton Duck" which was named because it was waterproofed and water rolled off it like a duck. Later on, the term Duct tape was used either to encourage it's use, or because it was being used to protect ducts.
 
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Most duct tape I've used doesn't have a very long lifetime when exposed to the sun, the fabric and glue dries out pretty soon, and then it's a bear to remove.

There's some high tech duct tape out there that's quite a bit better than the common stuff you'd buy at Wal-Mart, but it'd cost you a lot more to cover a aircraft with it than the conventional method.

Most of the cloth covered aircraft flying today are not doped linen, canvas, cotton or whatever, but fiberglass, rayon, etc.
 
So the real question now is: Can you make an airplane skin out of speed tape (and hold it together in flight)?
 
Just approved by the FAA for temporary repairs.
Plus, it'd be too heavy, too expensive, and probably not enough flexible adhesion sticking to itself under cold conditions.

I've helped someone cover a Piper Colt in Stits Polyfiber, and I've used 100 mph tape, ( as they called it in 1970), there just ain't no comparison.
 
nuuumannn said:
We call it hundred mile-an-hour tape, becoz it's good for a hundred miles an hour!
Click to expand...

We might have called it 200 mph tape, I don't remember for sure.
I saw it on aircraft that were capable of well over 100 mph, or even 200 .

But we had nothing anywhere I was station that had fabric covering, so I've only seen speed tape ( as it's called now ) used over rigid surfaces, not something semi rigid like doped fabric or itself.
 
That "foil tape" also what we referred to within the USAF as "speed tape" (an aluminum based metal tape) was widely used when I was in. FlyboyJ is right, it is good for well over 400 mph (I can speak to at least mach .83 in certain circumstances).
100 mph tape is a better quality or "stickier" duct tape.
 
The tape of my time , 100 mph or 200 mph, whatever it was called, was cloth based.

I don't know what speed it was actually rated for, but I saw it on A-28s, A-26s, A-1, etc, all aircraft that could go well over 200 mph.
 
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