Tapered and elliptical wings and tail surfaces and swoopy fuselages can be very beautiful to behold but also a pain in the backside to build. A multitude of different ribs and often tapered and twisted spars underneath the skin can make for a long and challenging project. A few designers have, however, tried to split the difference by using tricks that, for example give the appearance of an elliptical wing but in fact use identical ribs and simple structure.
Louis Stolp's Starduster biplanes and other designs do just that, using constant-chord swept wings with identical ribs and parallel spars and putting all the curves aft of the rear spar in the ailerons, trailing edge, and wingtips. Here's a Stolp Starduster Too in flight that shows the wing shape nicely and a top view of a Stolp Starlet in which I have highlighted the identical rib and parallel spars.
Does anyone know of any other examples from homebuilt aircraft, or production aircraft using techniques a homebuilder could emulate, of "faking the curves" in a way that makes those curvaceous lines easier to build?
Louis Stolp's Starduster biplanes and other designs do just that, using constant-chord swept wings with identical ribs and parallel spars and putting all the curves aft of the rear spar in the ailerons, trailing edge, and wingtips. Here's a Stolp Starduster Too in flight that shows the wing shape nicely and a top view of a Stolp Starlet in which I have highlighted the identical rib and parallel spars.
Does anyone know of any other examples from homebuilt aircraft, or production aircraft using techniques a homebuilder could emulate, of "faking the curves" in a way that makes those curvaceous lines easier to build?
