Company Working Towards A Larger STC Portfolio

By Anthony Liberatore

The FAA recently awarded an STC to Better Aircraft Fabric (BAF) of Anchorage, AK for the application of Oratex on 12 glider types in the United States, including the SZD Bocian.

Lars Gleitsmann (pictured), owner of Better Aircraft Fabric said it was a 4 year process with the FAA to get to the STC, and this is the first in a long line of anticipated approvals. “It is covering a bunch of gliders, and their will be other STC's for other airplanes and they are to be grouped together,” Gleitsmann said.

With approvals in 21 countries, and on 137 types of airframes, Gleitsman also noted Canada has issued approvals for Oratex for such well known aircraft as; Maules, Pipers, and Stinsons to name a few.

Oratex is a worldwide patented aircraft covering system that does not require the traditional fabric covering processes of applying; fabric, doping, UV barrier, painting, sanding, and no exposure to the chemicals in all these different processes. It is an a-in-one system where the covering is ready to go on after the patented Oratex Glue is applied to surfaces with which the fabric will be in contact and shrunk onto the structure with a heat gun after fitting and gluing.

Gleitsmann said the fabric "is a woven cloth made from a specialty proprietary plastic and it is then coated with 6 coatings at the factory, 2 of which are UV protectors. The trick is, they are applied in a way so they cannot separate from one another. It doesn't crack it doesn't peel.”

Gleitsmann went on to explain other characteristics of the fabric, however while he was many of his teammates in the booth were giving a demo of their own. These demos were of Oratex covered control surfaces such as horizontal stabilizers and they would ask visitors to physically smack the fabric as hard as they could with their fist. Other than it sounding like a loud drum, nothing happened. Gleitsmann noted rocks flung from large diameter bush plane tires in Alaska as well as firing a rock from a slingshot at 50 feet have not damaged the Fabric.

To further facilitate customers in Alaska, Gleitsmann noted that one of two new colors is Black (the other being orange) as it helps in melting away the ice and snow on Alaskan aircraft. Besides it's color options and durability Gleitsmann said the fabric can help reduce an aircraft's empty weight. This potential lower empty weight makes Oratex the go-to covering for the serious competitors in annual Valdez STOL Competition. Gleitsmann noted it is hard to quantify what the weight savings will be, as the weight of fabric and paint will vary from plane to plane of the same type, especially if it has a show quality paint job. However in terms of real numbers the lightest sample of a competitor's system he has seen weighed 29 grams/square foot with the bare minimum of paint. Gleitsmann noted it is not uncommon to see weights of 40, 50, 60, even 70 grams per square foot with other combinations of fabrics, systems, and paints, while Oratex weighs 14.2 to 15.1 grams/square foot depending upon the color chosen, so the savings can be substantial.

Gleitsmann said one large aircraft recovered in Oratex was an Antonov AN-2 Biplane, and it's weight savings was 176 pounds.

(Images provided by the author)

FMI: www.betteraircraftfabric.com