Effect of wing incidence?
 

What is the effect of wing incidence? I notice on the original Eindecker III, the thin, slightly undercambered wing is tilted up at about 10 degrees while the thick, flat-bottomed airfoil on the BUSA Eindecker is absolutely level. Was the original Eindecker's incidence angle a way of gaining more lift from these early thin wings. What would happen if I set the thicker BUSA wing at this angle. To my newbie pilot mind, the effect would be the same as increasing a flying plane's angle of attack -- which in general sounds like a bad thing.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

The thing is what is called decklage. That is the relitive angle of the wing tail and engine all together. The incidence is mesured from an emagenary line(water line or horizonal datom). To acheve extra stability training plane is usualy engine a few degrees down the wing leval and the stablizer slightly doun. Then the airplane is balanced nose heavy. To me an airplane looks better if it flys so the nose is slightly nose down in leval flihgt. In the real airplane they wanted the pilot to see over the nose so they wanted it to fly with the fuslage slightly nose doun. If you see a real Piper J3 Cub in flight it flys nose down a supre Cub flys more leval. The J3 you solo from the rear seat so you want the nose and the front seat passenger down out of the way. In the Super Cub you fly from the front seat so it flys more fusalage level.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Abu, yes, increasing the incidence on the Balsa USA is not a good idea.
The original wings had little lift, but also little drag, so the extreme angles needed for flight weren't penalizing the planes performance, such as it was.
As aerodynamic knowledge increased at the time, and watching the development of the Fokker line is a good measure of the speed at which knowledge was gained, better wings were developed and used.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Paul, thanks! I keep the wings level as per the kit plans. I was mostly just curious as to why the original EIII had the slanted wings (decklage). I've changed just about everything else about the BUSA kit so I thought...hmmm...why not this too. In fact the wing is the only part of the kit I've used and even here I've cut it in two and will be mounting the halves on tubes to allow a full cockpit.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

The actual term for the difference between the wing angle of incidence on the fuselage and the horizontal tail angle is "longitudinal dihedral' FWIW.
Decelage refers to the difference in incidences (if any) between the upper and lower wings of biplane..
When the AV Kadet Team isn't flying Kadets, we use the Eindecker... :)
These are all Balsa USAs, .91 powered.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Paul, if Palmdale weren't such a drive from Orange, I'd love to see your Jasta of EIII's flying! I'd sure like to have mine finished in about a month. Doing it scale has meant slow going -- but then that's given my piloting skills a change to evolve from absolute zero! I've been flying solo for several weeks now and up in the sky is no problem at all. Getting down however is still "exciting."

BTW, I appreciate all your advice on mods to the BUSA EIII.

--Don

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Tall Paul: where is your flying field located? I would like to take a drive out sometime and watch your team.

Tom

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Tom and Don, here's the skinny on our flying field..
It's really nice.
http://www.avti.org/
.
there hasn't been much Kadet or Eindecker team activity recently
There is a fair amount of flying in the mornings before the wind comes up.
Old retired guys during the week, and guys who have to work during the week fly on the weekends.

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Paul, thanks for the link. Looks like a real nice club and facility you have. :)

RE: Effect of wing incidence?
 

Wing incidence affects the angle at which the fuselage flies in level flight (its 'deck angle')... If the wing chosen for an airplane requires +5 degrees of angle of attack at its normal design cruise speed, and the wing is attached to the fuselage at +5 degrees, the fuselage will be level in cruise flight... If no incidence were applied, the fuselage would be flying at +5 degrees, resulting in a noticeable uphill/downhill angle for passengers on a long airplane..

IMO, since passengers seldom wander around on a model ;), the wing incidence is only important to establish the proper angular relationship between it and the horizontal stab....

Cheers!

Jim