RCU Forums - View Single Post - Do wrinkles in wing covering affect flight performance?
Old 06-20-2008 | 06:38 AM
  #23  
da Rock
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From: Near Pfafftown NC
Default RE: Do wrinkles in wing covering affect flight performance?


ORIGINAL: Yishht87


Guys, please could you post pictures on ehre of your own scratchbuilt models and especially their covering? I would like to see what you guys are up to.


Thank you,
Yishht.
OK, this Sagitta actually has one of my scratchbuilt wings on it. The horizontal tail is probably one of mine also, but I'm not positive about that. All my gliders wound up with way more than one set of wings built for them. Detachable wings are perfect for experimenters like me. If an airfoil caught my eye, I could whip out a wing with that new, magic airfoil before the next weekend. I'm pretty sure the wing in the picture is based on an Eppler family. One profile at the root progressing to another in the family at the dihedral break progressing to a 3rd at the tip. I was also trying upturned Hoerners versus downturned about the time Epplers hit the scene.

A wing with the identical airfoils was covered with Monokote so I could compare surface textures. By building what was as close to identical wings that differed only in the texture of the covering, I had at least a fighting chance of having a sensible test setup. Unfortunately, testing out in the world blows that fighting chance. I knew that, but it was still fun to pretend that I'd be able to tell a difference if it was significant enough. Yeah, right.......
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