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Bowlus-ish

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Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Messages
3,194
Location
Western US
For your general consideration and kibbitzing:

A lightweight and (relatively) inexpensive modest-performance sailplane built out of stuff that's already lying around my shop. I've always been charmed by the looks Bowlus Baby Albatross, and I like the idea of a fun little sailplane where it's no big deal to take the canopy off and fly it with just a windscreen.

The attached drawings (I hope they come through) show a proposed possible candidate design that repurposes a bunch of stuff from the HP-24 and legacy HP/RS stuff:

* The wings are 13.1m, and made from cut-down HP-24 wings and first-generation wing spars. Unlike the Baby Albatross, they're cantilever. However, the flaps are omitted, the airbrakes are simple hinged spoilers, and the aileron mass balance is omitted. The result is a lightened, simplified, and cost-reduced wing commensurate with a toy glider.

* Horizontal stab and elevator is, again, cut down HP-24 parts.

* The pod-and-boom fuselage uses an RS-15 aluminum tailboom, of which I have several lying around.

* The fuselage pod is probably the hardest thing to make here; I'd probably have a simple mold 3D routed from flotation billet, skin it with some boat cloth, bondo over the worst whifferdills, and fix the rest of the issues in the parts.

* Internal structure is a bunch of fiberglass bulkheads made in simple plywood molds.

* Yeah, still autoconnect controls. Those are pretty much an ethical necessity.

* Fixed gear, Azusa 5" wheel with Cheng Shin 11.400x5 tire, band-over-tire wheelbrake.

* Vne limited to ~100 kts

* Empty wt ~300 lbs, gross wt ~520 lbs

* Best L/D ~30:1 with canopy?

* Total cost, no clue, not sure I want to go there. I could make myself one for maybe $10k out of pocket, but couldn't break even kitting it for less than about $20k.

View attachment Baby1 web.pdf
Baby1 web.jpg
 
Last edited:
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