WING GRID
 

Has anyone experimented with "wing grids", and if so what did you think about them?
I have considered building a wing that has this feature but I want to know from someone who has built one their thoughts on them before wasting time and money on a planform

RE: WING GRID
 

EAGLE FEATHERS ! ! !

Dang you come up with some unusual stuff. After your post about middle wing effect I went looking at just what in tarnation a wing grid is. It's a mechanical version of the eagle's tip feather arrangement. Very interesting I must say.

But other than copies of a non scientific nature for mock bird models I doubt anyone has tried this. You can be first and we'll follow like good little sheep... :D

I think some serious work would need to be done for our sizes and reynolds numbers to determine the optimum number and angles for this system. A wind tunnel would be a good starting point since I doubt there's much math to support our speed and size range.

RE: WING GRID
 

Didn't MODEL AVIATION have an article about a slope soaring "bird"? At first it flew with stationary tip feathers, but the author later modified a feather on each side to twist for roll response. I think it was either a seagull, a hawk or a raven.

RE: WING GRID
 

There was an SAE design with wing grid a couple years ago... my group thought about using them, but scrapped the idea and went with a 17.5 to 1 AR and whitcomb winglets... I really doubted those things and we didn't have time to do the research. The group that used wing grid had a very low aspect ratio wing of around 4 to 1 the plane crashed a couple hundred yards after takeoff... didn't carry much weight either.

Ty

RE: WING GRID
 

In the below listed link data is displayed that is of great interest when trying to save weight & reduce drag. I've pondered the thought of doing this "wing grid" thing but have no expertise in this area.
I must ask again, has anyone had any success in this area?
http://www.winggrid.ch/

RE: WING GRID
 

The SAE plane referenced above. It flew relatively well, I don't recall its flight score.
The pelican shown here has servo driven alules, which pivot similar to ailerons. I have noticed however ravens use their tails for directional control, tilting it in a manner similar to what free-flights do to get circling flight.