Re: Curved Wing Tips and Vertical Stab

From: Bill Gowen <b.gowen_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 13:44:40 -0400

My F1M has a rectangular wing. My personal opinion is that curved wing tips are pretty but not really an asset in duration - except that in classes like F1D and EZB the curved tips will help save weight and increase rigidity.

Another consideration - for classes where there is a limit on wingspan and wing chord you have to decide whether a possible increase in aerodynamic efficiency is worth giving up wing area. My vote usually goes with maximizing the wing area. On my F1L I've got tapered tips which doesn't make a lot of sense but looks better to me than square tips. It seems to fly okay like this.

I use tip rudders on all my models and none are curved.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: calgoddard
  To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 1:29 PM
  Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Curved Wing Tips and Vertical Stab


  This group is pretty slow this Summer, so I thought I would throw
  out another question to help us beginners gain some knowledge.

  I notice that all the F1D and F1M planes have curved wing tips on the
  main wing and on the horizontal stab. In addition, they all have a
  vertical stab with a curved configuration.

  Does this help with duration, or is it simply the result of building
  the lightest weight wing structures possible for these classes?

  Does such curvature only help in these ultra-light weight clasess?

  Would a Penny Plane, EZB, or A-6, for example, fly longer with curved
  wing tips than with stright edges on the wing tips?

  Is there any downside to using cureved wing tips?

  Thanks for your input.



   

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on Thu Aug 09 2007 - 10:45:16 CEST