Why Engineers Used Wood To Build Spacecraft

Wood is such a traditional building material we sometimes forget that it can have exceptionally useful material properties. Some spacecraft have used wood and wood based materials in their construction, even the latest SLS rocket has large areas coated in cork to insulate it from heat.

[saturnv]

Apple: we used aerospace graded aluminum!
Aerospace engineer: Actually we used wood.

[ragnkja]

The “Spruce Goose” was actually primarily made of birch, but there aren’t many common birds that rhyme with “birch”.

[bottlekruiser]

Normal people begin with wooden pickaxe
Kerbals begin with wooden Buran

[stefanklass]

Cork has evolved to protect the tree from fire, makes sense it also protects rockets from heat

[xnademolicious]

So cutting down trees in Civ 4 to build the Space Program quicker did make some sense!

[Romanamon]

Looks down at my aerospace-grade cork coaster

[ddegn]

For those wondering about the wooden spaceship at the end I found the following text in the article *This Giant Abandoned Soviet Spaceship Made of Wood Looks Like the Ultimate Children’s Playground Feature:*
*"This decaying wooden spacecraft was used as a wind tunnel model in the 1980s for the VKK Space Orbiter"*

[Danger_mouse]

Ah, WOOD - The original carbon fibre. 😁

[MushookieMan]

The key components of a wooden space-craft hull are hoops, rivets, and staves. The interior can be coated with tar to keep space out.

[henryatkinson]

Related to this, but as an engineer, I can confirm CAD stands for both computer aided design and cardboard aided design.

[edgarwalk]

The Dehaviland Mosquito was a wooden fighter bomber of WWII. It was also one of the fastest planes of WWII. Actual furniture manufacturers were recruited to build the structure!

[GoatzAreEpic]

The more I learn about rocket science, the less I seem to know about rocket science...

[thejesuschrist]

I’ve got a long history of working with wood. Never for anything this cool, however.

[mkst]

I think the ISS could use some nice paneling.

[brianombati]

The mighty Saturn 5's max Q is always

[strangelee]

So...how do you calculate the Plank length?

[jeffvader]

Wait wait wait is that a wooden Buran? I mean I know the soviets were on a tight budget but...

[martonkiss]

Wookies are proud of us.






(Yep they made wodden spacecraft according to Star Wars Legends)

[altaloma]

As a retired spacecraft mechanisms engineer, I endeavored throughout my career to actually fly something made of wood on various programs. The closest I came was to use its porous cell structure as a reservoir for lubricants within antenna gimbals. The idea was unceremoniously shot down, but not for what I considered good reason. We had, after all, been using an open celled rubber based material previously, so wood did not differ too much in it's properties from the rubber. I'm glad to hear that it still had, and has,  a place and was taken seriously by other disciplines.

[MichaelEdelman]

Balsa was also used as a shock absorber in the Apollo LM landing gear. It’s a perfect one-use, bounceless, shock absorber.