I’ve received a lot of requests for information regarding the interior finishes on our RV-10.  I’ve uploaded many pictures of our current RV-10 interior on this page. I will briefly explain how you can get similar results. Of note, we prepare all of the interior panels as we are building, but do not install them until the interior of the aircraft is painted. There is not a lot of paint that shows.

 Basically, you have to make patterns for the panels that you will then cover with your chosen fabric- be it upholstery fabric, leather, or ultraleather. We are using ultraleather and sheepskin in our new RV-10 build.

The panels you create can be from plastic or aluminum. The panels on the doors  and headliner shown here are from McMaster Carr.

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/131/4127/8734K22

In order to do the headliner panels, you must cut the patterns for them when the fuselage fiberglass shell is upside down – before installed on the fuselage. It is done is 2 pieces as you can see in the pictures. You need the 1/16″ polystyrene as is is flexible. On the RV-10 we are currently building, we opted to use the Aerosport headliner panels and center tunnel. Vic attached the headliner with screws on the pictured headliner. After many years it sagged in the back. When we recovered the panels last year, we added velcro to the area where it had sagged and now it looks good. For the new RV-10 we used the Aerosport center console and two fiberglass headliner panels from Aerosport as well.

For the doors, they also were done with the 1/16″ polystyrene on our current RV-10. Again they are in 2 pieces because of the shape of the door. Vic plans to use 1/16 aluminum on the current RV-10 due to convenience of pickup from Aircraft Spruce. You can see we use stainless screws to mount the panel to the door. They are discreet and not gaudy as some of the screw covers used in upholstery can be.

For the side panels, we use 3/32 Polystyrene from McMaster Carr.

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/131/4127/8734K24

 or sign material from Home Depot. The sign material is 1/4 ” thick. Depending on the location, many times we use our 1/4 super soundproofing on the back of the panel to push it away from the fuselage. Most of the panels stay in place without any screws or velcro.

I did one video on the front seat material. See below at 7:15. When I do the back seats purchased from Oregon Aero, I will do a video on the patterning and sewing techiques. One note. If you are purchasing the back seats from Oregon Aero, ask for the bottom seat to be straight across in front. For some reason they usually cut it out for a 5 point harness which no one uses in the back of the RV-10. It is easier to sew the straight edge.

DOORS

We like to finish our doors with upholstery material. We tried gluing directly to the door on our 2005 RV-10 but did not like the look. We could see the glue. So for our 2009 RV-10 we figured out how to make the upholstered doors look nice. We used ultra leather which is much lighter than real leather. We wrapped that around 1/16 in plastic from McMaster Carr. We made the templates before the door was attached. Due to the curvature of the door, we had to cover the door in two pieces. You can see the results in the pictures below. We used stainless screws to attach it to the door. The result is. a clean finished door. The black handle in the rear was to pull the door tight to ensure the pins locked in place. The hanging strap is to allow the occupant to pull the door down while the engine is running in the ground.

For our 2026 RV-10, Vic made a channel for the McMaster Carr door seal to attach to. So when we upholstered the door we had to make new templates while the door was in place so the aluminum we used did not overlap the door seal.  Below are the pictures of the process. We used the plane around door latch.

HEADLINER

For our 2009 RV-10 we made a headliner with 1/16 plastic from McMaster Carr. We cut the pieces while the fuselage canopy tub was upside down prior to installation. Vic put a wood trim piece at the top of the fuselage to hide the seam where the two pieces joined. We covered that with fabric first and then in 2024 we recovered it with ultraleather. Afer 15 years, the fabric was dirty, but the ultraleather  we had used in other parts of the aircraft was cleanable and did not need replacing. The pictures below are of the recovered headliner pieces.

HEADLINER USING AEROSPORT PANEL KIT

For our newly completed. RV-10 (2026), we used the Aerosport panel kit. We followed the instructions provided from Aerosport with a  few changes. Instead  of using their headliner, we used the faux leather from Douglas Interior Products that we used for all the side panels. Here is the link to the Aerosport product page:

https://www.aerosportproducts.com/product/rv-10-headliner-kit-green-cabin-cover/

SIDE PANELS

There is a subpage for the interior panels showing where they are located on the aircraft, and pictures of the panels in place.

https://baselegaviation.com/interior-panels/

There is also a subpage for the pen and pocket panel below.

https://baselegaviation.com/pen-holder-and-pocket-panel/

And the YouTube video below starting at 3:00.

SEATS

Below is a gallery of all the RV-10 seat covers I have made over the years. I have found that by studying pictures you can see how to make the covers. You can see the different styles.

The final picture is of the new RV-10 back seats. I used a diamond sewing style. There is a YouTube video showing how to pattern and sew the back cushion cover. 

The back seats above are from Oregon Aero. You can purchase the cushions uncovered from them.

https://www.oregonaero.com/van-s-rv-10-seat-cushion-system

For the new RV-10, I ordered the bottom cushions cut straight across. We do not use the 5 point harness in the back seat, so do not need the cut-out cushion. It is easier to cover the straight seat.

Here is a video showing how I covered one of the back seat cushions.

BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT

There is a subpage for the baggage compartment pocket panel.

https://baselegaviation.com/baggage-door-interior-pocket-panel/

As well as a YouTube video: