1. Earlier Gossamer aircraft of approximately 1 G design load had used similar tubes vith an externally piano-wire braced Structure, quite acceptable at very low flight speeds of 10-12 mph (16-19 km/h), the Condor (1976) using aluminum tubes and the Albatross (1978) using ones of carbon fiber.'
2. The fuselage spaceframe is assembled from small diameter carbon fiber tubes, typically 1 to 2 inch (25.4 - 50.8 mm) diameter, 3 to 6 ply wall thickness with end fixing using thin wooden discs (nominally 0.06 inch (1.5 mm) x diameter to close off the tube) - butt jointed and wrapped with Kevlar cloth for fracture resistance. This structure is braced with Kevlar raving - an extremely weight efficient method of achieving a rigid spaceframestructure.
3. Design of the Bionic Bat began on May 28, 1983. Construction started on June 27th and the airframe was completed for first test flights on August 20th at Shafter Airport. In total, all phases of design and construction to the first roll-out required 1692 manhours.