Re: Curved Wing Tips and Vertical Stab

From: calgoddard <calgoddard_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:23:33 -0000

Thanks Bill.

I can always count on you for some good input.

Here is another question.

I have seen some competitors try to max lifting area of the main
wing (under max span and chord limitations) by not having any wing
tip dihedral, or any dihedral at all for that matter.

They have a flat main wing (except for the airfoil ribs of course)
and they have vertical tip plates. See Double Trouble for example by
Brent Sanborn I believe.

I tried this a few times, and the planes suffered from occasional
inherent instability problems (slide slip and/or spiral down). Once
I got one of these models to fly really, really well, but on only
one flight. It couldn't be duplicated.

I found that a main wing with outboard wing tip dihedral sections
seems the most stable, and that, oddly, the angle of these doesn't
make much difference as long as it was at least 30 degrees.

Your thoughts?
Received on Thu Aug 09 2007 - 13:24:46 CEST