gschuld
Well-Known Member
Well, as I am fairly good at bringing up bad ideas at this point, I figure why stop now
. Boy there sure is something pretty about that elliptical wing shape to go along with the rounded profile elevator and rudderonder: ara: :nervous:
I have read a bunch about it compared to other wing shape designs. Theoretically the shape is said to be very efficient, but not as efficient in practice is it appears on paper. The downside appears to be the obvious extra difficulty in construction and the tendency for this wing shape to stall evenly all at once, not good for GA work. The extra complexity in construction does not bother me as the wood/foam/glass composite construction of a pair of KR-2s wings lends itself fairly well to custom shapes. The natural stall characteristics of the elliptical shape presents more of a concern for me. I am interested in using a 15% laminar flow wing shape made popular for the KRs over the last 10 years. Are there any reliable ways to retain the planform shape but improve the stall issues. A few degrees of twist? A mild airfoil shape change from root to tip? Any ideas, or should I simply return to my senses and let this one go....?
George
. Boy there sure is something pretty about that elliptical wing shape to go along with the rounded profile elevator and rudderonder: ara: :nervous: 
I have read a bunch about it compared to other wing shape designs. Theoretically the shape is said to be very efficient, but not as efficient in practice is it appears on paper. The downside appears to be the obvious extra difficulty in construction and the tendency for this wing shape to stall evenly all at once, not good for GA work. The extra complexity in construction does not bother me as the wood/foam/glass composite construction of a pair of KR-2s wings lends itself fairly well to custom shapes. The natural stall characteristics of the elliptical shape presents more of a concern for me. I am interested in using a 15% laminar flow wing shape made popular for the KRs over the last 10 years. Are there any reliable ways to retain the planform shape but improve the stall issues. A few degrees of twist? A mild airfoil shape change from root to tip? Any ideas, or should I simply return to my senses and let this one go....?
George
