Aircraft fabric covering often used in the restoration of older types that were originally covered using traditional methods. The purposes of the fabric covering of an aircraft are: Pioneering aviators such as George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal used cotton-covered flying surfaces for their manned glider designs. The Wright brothers also used cotton to cover their Wright Flyer. Other early aircraft used a variety of fabrics, silk and linen being commonly used. Some early aircraft, such as A.V. Roe's first machines, even used paper as a covering material. Until the development of cellulose based dope in 1911 a variety of methods of finishing the
Joseph B. Noil Joseph B. Noil Joseph Benjamin Noil (1841 – March 21, 1882) was a United States Navy sailor and a recipient of America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor. Joseph B. Noil enlisted in the Navy from New York; when he re-enlisted for a three-year hitch on December 29, 1874, he was described as thirty-four years old, born in Nova Scotia and a "Negro". His civilian occupation was as a caulker, and he was five feet, six inches tall. While serving on at Norfolk, Virginia on December 26, 1872, he saved a drowning shipmate, Boatswain J.C. Walton. For his conduct on