If you preuse some yacht racung magazines you can see some pretty impressive technology being applied to traditional sail and mast designs. A lot of rigid masts that resemble high lift, flapped wings and mnay other innovations borrowed directly from aircraft technology.
Now I have been toying with the reverse of this idea; using the mast-an-sail- technology for an ultralight wing.
So far this is is just napkin doodling, but I can see some potential here for a minimalist flying machine with somewhat conventional controls. The advantages include light weight and foldability. I am not talking about the usual ladder type of ultralight wing, but a true mast (spar) and sail configuration. A single spar would be used, rigidly braced (strut or wires), the root rib would be the boom and give the initial shape to the airfoil. This would be fixed, unlike a sailboat. One could articulate it for roll control but I have a feeling it would be a little inefficient. My idea would be to use a smaller tip rib (I suppose we now have a gaff rigged ultralight!) which would be articulated via a torque tube running in the spars, giving a wing warp type of control, but without the usual stiffness found in a more rigid wing.
The sail itself could be a single surface or be wrapped around the spar and carried to the trailing edge (the leech?), giving a more efficient shape. The problem of flutter might warrant some investigation, battens would probably have to be employed.
Anybody have some bright ideas to throw in here? At least it would be cheap to experiment with and you could mount some test wings on your pick up truck and see what they do at ultralight speeds!
Now I have been toying with the reverse of this idea; using the mast-an-sail- technology for an ultralight wing.
So far this is is just napkin doodling, but I can see some potential here for a minimalist flying machine with somewhat conventional controls. The advantages include light weight and foldability. I am not talking about the usual ladder type of ultralight wing, but a true mast (spar) and sail configuration. A single spar would be used, rigidly braced (strut or wires), the root rib would be the boom and give the initial shape to the airfoil. This would be fixed, unlike a sailboat. One could articulate it for roll control but I have a feeling it would be a little inefficient. My idea would be to use a smaller tip rib (I suppose we now have a gaff rigged ultralight!) which would be articulated via a torque tube running in the spars, giving a wing warp type of control, but without the usual stiffness found in a more rigid wing.
The sail itself could be a single surface or be wrapped around the spar and carried to the trailing edge (the leech?), giving a more efficient shape. The problem of flutter might warrant some investigation, battens would probably have to be employed.
Anybody have some bright ideas to throw in here? At least it would be cheap to experiment with and you could mount some test wings on your pick up truck and see what they do at ultralight speeds!
