• Description: Flat and rigid building surface
• Length: 48 in (122 cm)
• Width: 15 in (38 cm)
• Height: 2 in (5 cm)
• Weight: 15 lbs (6.8 kg)

Wright Engineering is a relatively new company that started January 1, 1998. The initial public showing of Wright Engineering's building boards was at IMS in January 1998 in Pasadena, California. Since then Wright Engineering has attended the Weak Signals Expo in Toledo, OH and several other trade shows.

The building board is shipped in a sturdy cardboard box that is 50 1/4" x 16 1/2" x 3 1/2". The box is imprinted with the Wright Flyer logo and the name of the company on the outside. It is actually fairly attractive for a shipping box. The box is stapled with large staples to keep it closed in shipping. Each end of the box has a folded cardboard barrier and the board is wrapped in bubble wrap. It is obvious that anyone who goes to this much trouble for shipping must be producing a decent product.

The first impression of the building board is positive. The top of the board and the actual working surface is 1/2" thick industrial grade high-density cork. The base structure of the board is 1/2" thick medium density fiberboard. This particular board has 2 - 1" square aluminum tubes running the length of the board on the bottom to help keep it flat. The ends of the tubes are capped with plastic caps. The edges of the cork surface appear to be routed to a 1/2" radius, obviously to reduce the chance to chipping the edges. Someone put a lot of thought into this design.

There are many different products used for building boards; glass, corkboards, ceiling tiles, and hollow core doors to name a few. I have been using hollow core doors for my building board since the days that I built control line models. The other methods just never worked well for me. The one flaw that I found in the hollow core door is that pins are hard to push into the surface. This often results in bent T-pins. Quite often, the pin bends suddenly when it is being pushed in and the balsa rib or former gets cracked. Sometimes the pin goes through the board easily but does not hold well enough. Even with these flaws, the hollow core door has been my choice of building boards for a long time.

Building on the Wright building board is a real pleasure. The building surface is very flat and relatively smooth. Plans can be placed over the cork surface and taped to the smooth underside of the fiberboard base. Since the edges of the cork are rounded, it does not crease or tear the plans. Pins can be pushed into the cork surface in any direction with firm pressure and they hold well. I use aliphatic resin glue so I have to be able to push the pins in place and know that they will stay while the glue sets. I also like to be able to build part of a structure such as a wing half then move the building board out of the way while I go on doing something else. I have to feel confident that the building board will not bend or warp or allow the pins to pull loose when I move it. I had that confidence with the Wright building board.

In the early spring, I started building a Sig Ultimate Fun-Fly. I built the bottom wing on my regular hollow core door building board. The main problem that I had was pinning the alignment tabs to the board. When pushing the pins in the building board, I had to be careful not to bend the pin because it would break off the tab. Almost half the tabs were broken off and required that they be glued back on with a drop of CA. Due to more pressing projects, I postponed completing the Ultimate.

Building the top wing on the Wright building board was a totally different experience. The pins were easy to press through the ribs and into the cork surface and they held well while the glue was drying. There were no bent pins, no cracked ribs, and no broken tabs. Since the wing was held firmly in place, I am more confident that the wing is straight and true.

Wright Engineering has produced a product that will benefit any modeler. Wright offers the building board in two (2) other sizes; a medium size which is 15" x 12" x 1 1/2" and an extra large size which is 60" x 24" x 2". All but the largest wings can be built on one of the Wright Engineering building boards. Anyone looking for a new or replacement building board should give serious consideration to one of these offered by Wright Engineering.