I'd go lo-tech myself for this.
Wood is not all that glamourous these days, but it's an incredibly interesting and versatile material. You'll probably have to dig back into some 1930 - 1950 era textbooks to get some really good gen on it's use in aircraft design. Because it's anisotropic, the art of designing it into an aeroplane is a very deep on.
Consider: -
DH Vampire
BAe EAP
CFM Shadow
TEAM Minimax
as four aeroplanes using the material in totally different ways.
G