The Robin DR400 is a single engine piston aircraft very popular in France, with well over 2,000 units produced since its first version first flew back in the 1970s. That is the aircraft model I fly in the aeroclub and in this post I just wanted to share a few details about its construction, materials and a couple of pictures.
Pierre Robin founded the company Centre-Est Aéronautique in 1957 in Darois (France) together with the engineer Jean Délémontez at the time working for Jodel, from whom he took the wing dihedral. It is from their initials that comes the “DR”. Over the years the company first changed its name for Avions Pierre Robin, then it was sold… today the aircraft production is made together by Robin Aircraft and Centre-Est Aéronautique Pierre Robin (CEAPR).
In their website they explain the history of the DR400, first produced in 1972, and have a series of very interesting articles (in French) describing how they select and prepare the wood for their aircraft, how they build the wooden structure of the wings, how they build the wooden fuselage, how the wing skin is made out of a fabric produced by Diatex stapled to the frame (the craftsmen working on the fabric), the metallic parts of the plane… you read it well, a big share of the airframe is built out of wood and fabric, and this is to enable its light weight, between 615 and 630kg of manufacturer weight empty.
Recently, one of our aeroclub’s DR400s has gone through heavy maintenance, replacing the fabric and several parts and equipment. At the end of the process we received the pictures below of the wooden airframe:
Below you can see how the wing looks in flight, with the wooden structure covered by the fabric and how the lower pressure in the upper wing pulls up the fabric of the wing.
The Blog by Javier 