Designing a sailplane from scratch - guidance needed =)
 

Hi,

I've been building model airplanes since i was about 10 yrs old (27 now) and i'm starting a scratch build project. I've scanned the net for resources to help me come up with the wing length / tail moment / chord / airfoil relationships but have been unsuccessful.

I'd like to build a slope soaring sailplane under 2 meters with a flat wing (no dyhedral) and a cylindrical fuselage (not sure about T tail or reg tail yet). This will be my first scratch build sailplane / glider and could use any tools or resources (whether that's a book, website, etc) that you may know of.

When I design, i'm very math dependant so please if you have formulas that dictate the above relationships please let me know them or where i can find them. I have no problem with trigonometric or calculus formulae, so anything that will help me design this bird will be greatly appreciated =).

I've seen links to sites with 3d software for drafting but had planned on drawing the planes by hand. If there's a free program that works with windows that will help me design this then I would be very happy to know of it as well.

Thanks

Doing all I can to distract myself from graduate school =P

RE: Designing a sailplane from scratch - guidance needed =)
 

hi man,
i have done gliders. i got 3 rgiht now. what u need help with man? not a problem and has done many scratch build airplanes.just tell i will try to help all i can.
william

RE: Designing a sailplane from scratch - guidance needed =)
 

Hiya and thx

I'm basically looking for some sort of formulae or relationships to guide my choice of wing length, airfoil, chord length, tail moment, and surface area / shape of the tail structures.

RE: Designing a sailplane from scratch - guidance needed =)
 

well i have a butterfly glider right now. not sctrach though.

RE: Designing a sailplane from scratch - guidance needed =)
 

If you want to read a book or two, all the information you want is there.


Model Glider Design by Frank Zaic
http://www.peck-polymers.com/html/books/zaic.htm

Or more modern book.

Model Aircraft Aerodynamics
by Martin Simons
[link=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1854861905/qid=1098994812/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-9020450-8831957?v=glance&s=books]at Amazon[/link]

I own the Simons book and it is a good reference. BTW, the Simons book is sailplane oriented mostly.