ORIGINAL: andrew66
hey, i have a quick question, that will probably have a long answer.
Instead of a "flat bottom" wing, i want a symmetrical wing. I found an airfoil with a google search, and the one i picked said ultrasport 1000. I printed a pic of it off, and scaled it up so i would get a chord of 15.25" and ended up with 3" thickness. The wingspan will be 80". The problem is, if any. is that the airfoil looks really thick. Some reason just doesnt look "right" . I read on a sight that ideal thickness should be 15-18%. the airfoil i have is 19%.
The only reason I happen to know this is because I benchmarked UltraSport specs a couple of years ago. While thickness is 19% at the root, it thins to 16% at the tip. It also has a 25% chord taper from root to tip. Joe Bridi put just enough dihedral in to make the upper surface of the wing flat. Thus, looking at the small thin wing tip and flat surface creates an optical illusion that the wing is thinner than it really is. Pretty darn clever. Oh yea, it flies awesome too!