• 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!

Search results

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. WK95

    Hoerner wing tip geometry?

    Hey there everyone, I'm needing to model some Hoerner wingtips in CAD. Thing is, while I have an idea of how the wing tip looks like, I have no clue how to accurately model one. Any pointers on where I can get geometrical information on the wingtip?
  2. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    Also, here's a render CATIA made for me in less than a minute. All I did was add labels. A pretty picture just to remind me what my goal is. And following a redesign of the wing with a foam core, I was able to reduce the weight of the wing by around 1-1.5 lbs. I've switched the fuselage to...
  3. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    Agreed. I don't need to stay slow to track a target. A circular orbit about a fixed or slow moving target is fine. As far as low speed handling qualities, it must be safe enough that I can manually takeoff and land the plane. So Pops and others have a valid point. I think I'm going to lower my...
  4. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    I'm aware of the TAM-5. Impressive plane for sure. I don't use it as a reference point however since it's airframe is designed for far too different a mission than mine. The Aerosonde and Penguin B (54 hr endurance record) were designed primarily as UAVs and so must carry a payload beyond the...
  5. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    Valid point. Though certainly not optimized for the low end, I'm sure they have to have the landing speed low enough for belly landings without damaging the airframe or avionics. My guess though is that it wasn't particularly impressive which is why I can't find any data on stall speeds for the...
  6. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    Alright. Thanks I get what you mean.
  7. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    So what do you think is the problem with the wing loading? As far as performance goes, I've considered stalling speeds, climb and cruise performance (climb performance is a bit lower than i'd like), turning performance, and stability in gusts (crucial for camera stability). If I'm missing...
  8. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    So here's a simple model of the cored wings and the locations of the hardpoints. Shear web, spar cap, and servo cutouts not shown. Yep, lots simpler.
  9. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    Well, that's what flight testing is for. Can't predict everything. That said, RC aircraft have much lower wing loadings because they are expected to have much more maneuverability than UAVs (This is why I made a distinction between this project being a UAV not a typical RC plane. Understanding...
  10. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    I've performed sizing calculations and with that wing loading, should be able to achieve the stall speeds (among other things) I want. The wing would also have flaperons on nearly 2/3rd of the wing span and with a lift coefficient of nearly 1.5 at at a reynolds number near stall, my wing is...
  11. WK95

    Wet trimming carbon fiber prior to full curing

    Along the same lines, I was thinking hack saw and a part in a pan of water. Minimal dust flying into my lungs that way. Wet sanding too.
  12. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    You're right. I've been doing more calculations and am leaning more towards foam core now. Still figuring out some of the details out. Still going to do a wing trade study for my little plane (Currently focusing on the fuselage). And I know this is forum is about full sized planes. My reason...
  13. WK95

    Wet trimming carbon fiber prior to full curing

    So various places including the Rutan manuals say that one can "wet trim" fiber glass around 4 hours into the curing prior to it being fully cured. Can the same thing be attempted with carbon fiber? If possible, this would be ideal since cutting cured carbon fiber is a messy and potentially...
  14. WK95

    Selection of epoxies for a new design?

    Oh that's shady stuff alright. Won't be shopping form them again. Maybe they are that dumb. In another forum, people have said that their customer service knows nothing.
  15. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    http://www.cstsales.com/tutorials/buildcarbfiberspar.pdf Here's a tutorial on building a carbon fiber spar or wing joiner.
  16. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    You're right to say that simply copying something is no way to do engineering. On the other hand, it is also important to develop something based off of existing tried and true concepts. Do you have any examples of any RC planes that use what you describe ("foam core with built up spar and...
  17. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    You understood correctly. Discontinuities are a necessary evil in this case for the sake of transportability but this particular scheme makes it more acceptable. I've studied the Lancair manuals quite a bit while keeping in mind that the structure layout may not be optimal in smaller aircraft...
  18. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    I've been looking into a foam core. The difficulty then is joining sections of wing with hotwired core in an easily removable but structurally sound manner. With regards to the earlier recommendations to look into RC aircraft, I've found something called F3B which are basically RC gliders. They...
  19. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    I caught on to that recently. I'll be making the outboard skin fiberglass.
  20. WK95

    Opinions on my UAV Wing Structure

    I wouldn't called it a battle. I must admit though that the design schemes of larger aircraft are stuck in my head. Getting past "metal thinking" in composites design and "large aircraft" design schemes is tricky especially since there is relatively less information on UAV structures.
Back
Top