Workers from the LWF factory in College Point, Queens, New York City, demonstrate the strength of the laminated wood fuselage of the Model V.

The Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company's bid for "a poor man's airplane" was the Loughead S-1, designed by Jack Northrop. The fuselage was molded plywood.

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    Another application of molded plywood construction was used by Jack Northrop in the construction of the Loughhead S-1 using a 21-foot-long concrete mold. In this mold were placed three layers of spruce plywood strips, alternately laid, and well saturated with casein glue. Once the strips were in position, the mold was covered with a rubber bladder, and then a cover was bolted to the bottom mold. The rubber bladder inside was inflated and pressure was maintained for twenty-four hours. The half shells produced could be joined, making clean, smooth, bullet like fuselages.

    The S-1 was a distinct departure from pioneer and wartime aircraft. Northrop's experiments resulted in a unique cigar-shaped, streamlined fuselage that was of monocoque (French for "single shell") construction, in which strength comes from the outside skin rather than internal bracing. Northrop, Stadlman, and the Lougheads devised and patented a process to make molded plywood monocoque fuselage shells (US Patent #1,425,113, August 8, 1922).

Concrete mold in which monocoque wooden shell of the S-1 Loughead sport biplane of 1919 was formed.

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