Originally Posted by
Gary cw
7 - because they ' developed' the airframe they drew and made every single piece of the aircraft and tested every piece. They started to realise wood with straight grain was best for aircraft production. Any ' wooden' aircraft use ' aviation grade ' timber. This was the start of that specification.
Although I was actually looking to see if an early copy of The Aeroplane was available, I found a book on the Internet Archive called Building and Flying an Aeroplane, published in Chicago in 1912.
I quote: "...must be straight-grained and perfectly free from knots and other defects".
BTW Handley Page, not page.