• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Flap Chord / Size, Spoilers Too

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GESchwarz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
1,250
Location
Ventura County, California, USofA.
My desire is to get the most effect from my flaps and ailerons, so I'm wanting to make them as big as possible without compromising the strenght of the wing's torsional strength, and I don't want an excessive amount of pitching moment.

What determines the maximum percent of chord for the flaps and ailerons?

How does one maximize lift from his flaps while minimizing pitching moment? I understand that leading edge devices do this, but I really don't want to get into leading edge devices...I'm not that crazy.

Presently my design has them at 29% of wing chord, and they do "look" a little big, but is that okay? The airfoil is a 52" chord, Riblett GA37318, Hershey bar planform.

Another concern...I want to maximize the span of my flap. I don't want to use flaperons or even have the ailerons partially deploy as flaps, for fear that I may stall the ailerons at high AoA. Are these fears founded or should I go ahead and put some flap mixer into the aileron linkage? I just read an article in Sport Aviation, May 2008, pg 50 about a guy that made his droop aileron optional when deploying the flaps. I'm going to look into that. He would forgo the droop for crosswind langings.

Because I'm a mechanical nut and I want to be able to hit the numbers on every landing, I'm thinking about making a spoiler of the upper wing skin that is aft of the rear spar/over the Fowler flap, using a piano hinge. This would give me excellent rate of descent control, wings level the whole way down. Any words of warning/advice regarding spoilers?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top