I thought I might start a thread for people interested in sharing their experiences building a straight across wing for a light park flyer. (Well, I also started it because I'm planning to build one too )
Anyway, Any and all Ideas are appreciated.
A couple questions I have for starters,
How thick should the wing be?
How wide should it be?
and what shape should it look like?
please include wing length so we can determine length:width:thickness ratio.
(Now is a good time to show off your planes' wings )
..........
Sorry, I should specify: Not JUST a wing, but the whole thing rudder/elevators all, but just working on the wing part.
Also, what I mean by straight across, is a 1 part wing, instead of the wing as 2 parts.

I haven't built a 'plank' in many years, however I will make a few observations.

The airfoil would look more like your picture #4 with a reflexed TE. This is what provides the downforce at the rear of the wing to counterbalance the CG up front pulling the LE down.

It should be fairly thick to allow a wider range of angles of attack. Thin airfoils were just too twitchy. CG get to be pretty critical with thinner airfoils.
If you have Profili (http://www.profili2.com/), look at the Eppler series (they have a couple of reflex airfoils that would work), and also look at the 'Horton Standard', 'CJ4', and 'RAF 34' airfoils in the database. These are all sort of what you want.

You could also do a Google search for "Flying Plank" and find lots of info on full sized planks and airfoils for them...

Happy experimenting!

or, I have seen half or whole
kind of like this..

Like this (horton Standard 13%)...

looks good,that answers a couple questions of mine, anyone have suggestions for material?
(balsa/paper;foam;...)
Just an idea, but what about the foam that's used as those long pool floaties. It's probably too heavy, but it'd be cheap !

Water noodles are too soft and flexible to use. It does make a good shock absorbing material for make nose pods out of, though...

White Styrofoam, EPP, and 'Pink' foam (from the local building supplies house) can all be cut with a hot-wire set-up.

Fan-Fold BluCor (also from the building supplies house - depending on where you live) and Depron (DepronUSA.com) or balsa can all be used for very light weight built-up structures. depron seems to be lighter and more resiliant than blucor, but costs more.

Check out the Profili link I mentioned. The trial version is free, and $10 unlocks all the features. You can generate templates for cutting the foam cores (or ribs, complete with spars, etc., if you choose go that route) very easily with it. It is worth a download and a look...

what is this hot wire setup?

A 'hot wire' is a wire, nichrome (see the local airport's FBO for some 'safety wire') or music wire (like a guitar string) that is strung to a bow - like an archery bow string. Apply electricity to both ends (a HO train power supply works good), and it gets hot enough to melt its way through the foam. You make templates for it to ride on, tack those to each end of a block of foam, and slice it out...

very nice. good Idea. Thanks for the input, seems not a whole lot of people are interested in building their own flyer? I would have figured this was a hot topic, were their past posts already about this?

Well, there are lots of threads on building your own fliers. It is something a lot of people do. It seems we are in a more-or-less private conversation here. Maybe I should have let others jump in...

Actually, I just went back to the top of the thread and reread what you asked. I was mistaken about the question. When you said 'wing' and 'straight across', I thought you meant a straight (no sweepback) flying wing. I now see you add 'the whole plane' towards the end...

In that case, I need to back up a bit. The airfoils I posted pictures of were reflexed for stabilizing tailless flying wings. If you are thinking about a conventional aircraft with tail feathers, then, no, you don't want reflex.

What the airfoil should look like depends what you want the airplane to do. Slow fliers can have a curved wing made of a single layer of foam. The high undercamber slows the plane down.

For general knocking about the park, a built up, flat bottom airfoil is fine.

For aerobatics and inverted flight, the wing should be symmetrical (top and bottom the same curve).

Since you've asked a very basic question, I would guess this might be your first scratch-built plane. Before you decide to design your own, you might want to look closely at some proven designs and take your cue from them.

Go to Hipps's (Dan's) website http://www.foamfly.com and look in the 'Picture Gallery' | 'Share your Photos Here'. On page 6, look at 'Glen`s BlueCor pictures & PLANS!' (or just go direct: http://www.foamfly.com/gallery/view_...albumName=Glen). There are a bunch of odd-ball fliers in there. The "Pete" is an easy to build, good flying plane, and it is built out of either BluCor or Depron. It takes just a few hours to cut out and assemble and is very durable. Once you have one built, then use it a test bed to try different ideas. Cover the bottom of the wing with film to see what a flat bottom wing acts like compared ti undercambered, etc.

I am primarily interested in building micro models in the 1 ounce range. Click on the 'www' link at the bottom of this post to go to my web site for pictures of a few of them.

Currently, I am pretty happy with depron as a building material. It is very light, easy to work with, stiff and resiliant. Check the out the 'Petite Pete' on my micros page; it is depron. It is a half-sized version of the Pete in Glen's album, and it is a super flier...

i recently biult my fitst wing, i have just the skeleton done (no servos, covering or ailerons) i am able to twist my wing a bit, is this going to be fixed when i cover my wing, or do i need to put in diagonal braces between wing ribs, i dont want to because it will ad a siginficant amount of weight to my plane.

also if any of you pro's out there have any good tips for covering a wing using monocote stuff please it will help...

thanks

Most of the twisting stiffness comes from the covering, and it is normal for a skeleton to twist.

Monokote is quite heavy and will add a lot of tension to the wing and may twist the structure (warp it). Nelson LiteFilm is as easy to use but it is considerably lighter and doesn't shrink so hard.