ORIGINAL: da Rock
ORIGINAL: iron eagel
I think it is possible to reduce that by at least 25% ( and that does not even include the weight of the wire braces and all of it components perhaps I should factor them in as well). While that may not be all that much I think that every gram you can take off of the wing loading will enhance the performance. And since your dealing with the moment of the aircraft every gram you can take out of the weight of the tail has a much larger effect than it has up forward.
Oh jeez..... LOSE the wire braces idea. It is a really silly idea when you consider how strong tails can be made on our models with just a very slight consideration of structure and materials.
I think it still around in the ARFs because they take almost no notice of materials.
It's actually diametrically opposed ideas to be considering one technique to streamline and strengthen, yet retain wire bracing.
If for any reason you feel the urge to wire brace anything, simply use sticks. Spruce is dependable and light and can be generally airfoiled. The glue to attach it is much lighter and simpler than the ridiculous hardware used with wire. The sticks can be TEN times the size of the wire and be LESS drag. Ten times.....
No lie. Wire braces on a model airplane are just plain bad.
Here is a trick I discovered -- use the old K&S streamline amuminum tubing - this stuff is extremely light and twist resistant - IMPORTANT!! This means that if it is properly attached - it reduces dramatically any possible twist in the flying surface. Don't believe it ? try it. the piece I used (36" ) is 1/2 " size --which I used on the scale Buckers I did for 1990 TOC models as LG brace covers
anyway -on this 16 oz (all up inc batts ) flat foamie which uses 4, A123 VPX cells - the wings are almost totally twist proof- the tubing is 31 grams for this size and they have smaller ones too which are perfect for tail bracing -just flatten the ends
The cross section makes em more rigid than any shape I have tried. far better than CF dowels or tubes.
This funny looking flat foam model, has a fuselage with same lateral area as the wing area .
The result makes for a really interesting aerobatic setup; You can do "flat" turns as fast -and with no apparant skid --as a banked turn.
So knife edge flying and maneuvering is much the same a s level flight . The other trick--I found--balancing the fuselage vertically- by placing the batteries above the wing. This improves rolls and knife edge flight .
I have adopted tricks I larnt from the funny fla tfoam models --to my big gassers - ( balance - power to weight - Low wing loading , the models really do fly better - -not as agile as the flat foam but better than they were before I started adopting learned techiniques from the flat foam stuff.
Of course the bigge was the "airfoil"- and importance of "shape".
I found that the lightest thinnest wing which was strong enough - was the best -- Look at Que Ques Biplnane flown to win the last F3A aerobatics - those airfoils must be only 7-8 %
That contest places a premium of acccurate smooth flying.
get the qeight down an you can reduce the airfoil thickness -and ofcourse the bipe configurationis a better beam load setup. (but a PTA to do -trust me on that one.