Here's just a little info some may find interesting:

The major difference between aircraft and commercial cable is the lubrication applied to aircraft cable, which provides substantially better fatigue life than non-lubricated commercial cable. Aircraft cable requires extensive extra testing, documentation and certification to meet military specifications. We obtain our aircraft cable from domestic sources and the cable is certified to MIL-DTL-83420 and QPL Certified. Unit of measure is feet.

Flexible Control Cable
Has seven strands of seven wires each. Used for control purposes where extreme flexibility is not required but where abrasion is a factor.

Flexible Control Cable
Has seven strands of 19 wires each. Its greater metallic area makes it stronger than 7 x 7 cable. Because of its fine wires the best service is obtained where abrasion is not too severe. These same wires, however, make it flexible to meet severe bending.

Non-Flexible Cable
Is one strand of 19 wires. It has more metallic area than 7 x 7 or 7 x 19 constructions which makes it the strongest but also the least flexible. 1 x 19 is generally used for bracing purposes, drag and anti-drag wires. It is often used with swage type terminals.

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Tim
Collierville (Memphis), TN
Supercat 15--sold :(
Hobie monocat--given
Vanguard 15--traded for...
Nacra 4.5--sold
Nacra 5.7
Hobie 14–sold to make room for...
Supercat 17–sold
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That was copied from the Aircraft Spruce website. The wire from our two most common suppliers is NOT milspec. One of them told me that no supplier would go to the expense of using milspec. However, I can get milspec wire from Aircraft Spruce for a penny less per foot than I can get "commercial" wire from our popular supplier. The milspec fittings, thimbles, swages, etc are right about the same as well.

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Tim
Collierville (Memphis), TN
Supercat 15--sold :(
Hobie monocat--given
Vanguard 15--traded for...
Nacra 4.5--sold
Nacra 5.7
Hobie 14–sold to make room for...
Supercat 17–sold
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