RCU Forums - View Single Post - Need info on Halberstadt fighters
View Single Post
Old 01-16-2005, 09:03 PM
  #24  
abufletcher
 
abufletcher's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Zentsuji, JAPAN
Posts: 15,019
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Default RE: Need info on Halberstadt fighters

You're right. It's there fore sure -- whatever "it" is! What completely dumbfounds me is that for all the world the lower wing (in particular) looks like it has a curved TE yet all the 3-views show it to be straight. If I had to guess at a function, I say washout for stability. In the photo you posted with the rear view it looks like the top wing also shows the droop.

It would be interesting to know how flexible the wing is and whether as the Pipe suggust the droop might alter in flight -- like the flex in a 747 jet's wing. Given how thing these early wings were and the usual forward positioning of the spars in many German aircraft, I'd guess that the rear third of the wing would be fairly flexible. I really wonder whether even the covering process itself could have pulled (intentionaly or not) the wing into this shape.

I'm generally of the mind that everything that we see in an aircraft has been engineered in for a purpose, but in discussions (on the rationale behind the curvature on the rear lower wing edge of several German planes) several voiced the opinion that aircraft design at this early stage was still a matter of trial and error and that even aesthetics played a roll.

Anyway, if it were me modeling this, I'd also want to model in the droop, as you say just for self-satisfaction, and the challenge would be to create what looks like a variable degree of droop (creating the impression of a curved TE from certain angles and yet still maintain a straight TE as seen from above. Your ideas about modifying the rib tips looks like the best bet, though you'd have to be extremely precise in the cutting and covering.

I love a good mystery!!!