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Old 05-25-2012 | 02:55 PM
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speedracerntrixie's Avatar
speedracerntrixie
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Default RE: constant depth, tapered wing?


ORIGINAL: da Rock

Designing a (chord) tapered wing with the same family of symmetrical airfoils having a thicker profile percentage wise as you progress toward the tip is a trick that has been practiced in Control Line stunt since CL stunt began. It works.

CL stunt patterns include square corners of insanely small radius. The goal is 5' radius. The average stunter flew at around 50mph. The corner was often turned as the plane was headed straight into the ground and started at 10'. Some corners resulted in the stunter making it's 90* turn to inverted. Some had the plane coming out right side up parallel to the ground. You really didn't want your model tip stalling as it made those corners. When we designed those planes, we made sure the flaps tapered at least as fast as the chord tapered. We also kept an eye on the absolute chord of the flap as it approached the tips. Too narrow a chord and those flaps would give you tip stall.

Yes, your idea works, but there are a number of other things that have to be considered. Nothing works in aerodynamics all by itself.

Building a wing as you suggest, with a constant depth, is actually easier to build as well. It's easier to build and it tip stalls less. It's a great idea.
I couldn't agree more. I often see guys trying to apply full scale theory/logic to our models and most times it just dosen't work out in practice. If it did, most of my airplanes would fly like poop LOL. For the guys that want to preach airfoils, washout, reynolds numbers and all this other stuff. Please run the numbers at models wing loadings and power to weight ratios. I'm willing to bet it will change the ballgame drastically.