Solution Found For Replacing V-Tail Bonanza Ruddervator Skins

The American Bonanza Society (ABS) gratefully handed over a check today to SRS Aviation President and owner Dave Laurin for $528,110. The payment represents an award to the first aircraft repair facility to successfully develop an FAA-approved method of repairing or replacing the magnesium skins of V-tail Bonanza “ruddervators.” A Bonanza’s ruddervators combine the rudder and elevator control surfaces of a three-surface aircraft empennage into two.

A total of 10,402 V-tail Bonanzas were built between 1947 and 1982. Their ruddervators were constructed of magnesium for its strength and light weight. But replacement magnesium skins have been unavailable since 2021, an “existential threat” to continued operation of all existing V-tail Bonanzas. No other material has been found that conforms with the precise weight (for weight and balance) and strength of magnesium

The payment to SRS consists of $500,000 set aside by the estate of Manuel Maciel to be paid to anyone who could establish an FAA-approved method of manufacturing the skins, plus an additional $28,110 contributed by ABS members. ABS set the criteria for success, including not only FAA approval, but also a minimum of 100 sets of skins produced (“We didn’t want to fund a science project,” said ABS Air Safety Foundation Executive Director Tom Turner); and finally, the sale price could not exceed 150% of the last recorded price for skins from Beechcraft (now part of Textron Aviation).

In fact, Turner said, SRS’s sale price for a set of ruddervator skins comes in at just under the Beechcraft price of $9,000. ABS Board President Susan Delgado said, “This achievement was made possible because of the grant from the Maciel family and our ABS member donors. The prize inspired innovation and research within the aviation community, which is critical to address availability of parts for aging airplanes. These news SRS ruddervators will help preserve our Beechcraft fleet for generations to come.”