Sailplane Wing Design Round II

[Nodd]

I've seen diagonal ribs used in a lot of really nice wings so they can't be all bad. I agree though, they may introduce some slight waviness in the covering but overall I expect it'll be preferable to sagging. IMO the benefit in torsional strength alone is worth a few minor ripples anyway.

Wingtip Ornaments
Although I've done a load of research into the science behind winglets, I've come to the conclusion, for a sailplane of this size, winglets are little more than eye candy & I'm fine with that. So today I put away my research notes & got down to building these puppies...



I stumbled upon some wood in my workshop that's perfect for the job, a lowly roofing shingle...



The shingle, made of pine I think, is both light & fairly strong. Best of all it has a nice ready made taper...



The other parts are balsa & light plywood...



After carving an airfoil into the shingle winglets I epoxied them to the balsa & then began the sculpting...



Checking symmetry between the two wing-tips. This would make one wicked pinewood derby car :-)



For ease of transportation & so I have the flexibility to experiment with different wingtips I made these detachable...



I don't know about you but they look pretty sweet to me...



Pretty happy with these. They look cool yet are small enough that they shouldn't screw with the aerodynamics too much & if they do, I can always take em off...

[Nodd]

And that's a wrap
At this point I'm going to call this project a done deal. The wing is, for the most part, complete. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, she totally exceeded my expectations. I couldn't have done it without the help of the community here. You folks rock.

So what's next?
I've come to the realization that this wing has surpassed the quality level of my original fuselage. It'd be a crime to fly her on that flimsy pod-n-boom. Not to mention it was involved in a pretty harsh crash & who knows what unseen damage it sustained. So the plan is... drum roll please... design & build a new fuselage.

I'll be starting a fresh thread to document the fuselage's progress. You can find that here...

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67904


And to properly wrap up this thread here's a moody, over processed picture of the completed wing...

[JetPlaneFlyer]

If it were me i couldn't resist giving it a fly with the 'old' fuselage (which looked like a great piece of work to my eye)

Any pics of the finished wing?

[soarrich]

So now you're done with F-Ugly and F-Beautiful is started, cool!

[peter2102]

Nodd, nice work. I love it.
Now I design EP sailplane about 2m wingspan with S3021 airfoil, but your model is so nice that I'm going to build also something like that. I'm waiting for more photos.
May I Ask you for plans ?
best regards
good luck

[Nodd]

Peter you can find more photos & info here...

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67904

If all goes well with the build I may make plans available.

[peter2102]

Thank you very much for info. What kind of airfoil do you use ?
Happy New Year 2013 !!!
Best wishies
Peter from Poland

[Nodd]

I used the same airfoil as my original wing...

[peter2102]

SD 7037 is a good choice I think. What is the angle of attack ?

[Nodd]

0°