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
Fabric structure most widely used materials are polyesters laminated or coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and woven fiberglass coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The traditional fabric for fabric structures is light cotton twill, light canvas, or heavy proofed canvas. Strength, durability, cost, and stretch make polyester material the most widely used in fabric structures. Polyesters that are laminated or coated with PVC films are usually the least expensive option for longer-term fabrications. Laminates generally consist of vinyl films over woven or knitted polyester meshes (called scrims or substrates), while vinyl-coated polyesters usually have a high-count, high-tensile base fabric coated with a bondable substance