RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

FOD - foregin Object displacement
FORD - Found on road dead / fix or repair daily
FIAT - Fix it again Tony
Pontiac - Poor old knucklehead thinks it's a cadillac

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

What about spars, Ive read them somewhere before, what are they?

chris

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

For thermal sailplanes there's 2 classes"
Lead Sleds = molded sailplanes, usually with just a little dihedral.
Gas Bags = polyhedral floater sailplanes with seriously bent wings.
Servos - BB - ball bearing, MG - metal gears.
Gluck.

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

I thought MG was 'Machine Gun'?! :D

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

Ford- FIRST On Race Day

SPAD-- Simple Plastic Aeroplane Design

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

Spars are the long, strong, members in the wing that go from tip to root. Wings made of balsa seldom have balsa spars, the spars are normally of spruce, or basswood. There are normally two spars, one at the top side, and the other at the bottom. They are sometimes connected together with a sheet of balsa to make an 'I' beam type arrangement. The structure between the spars is called the "shear web". The shear web is supposed to have the wood grain running perpendicular to the spar, but this is seldom done in practice. In practice, when you build a wing, the wing ribs are attached to the leading edge, the spars, and the trailing edge.

Basically, if you take the thickest part of the wing, at the top there is a spar that runs the length of the wing, and at the bottom too.

This is taken from dictionary.com:
A main structural member in an airplane wing or a tail assembly that runs from tip to tip or from root to tip.

gus

RE: Acronyms for beginners
 

Thanks gus