I had this idea for a loooong time (wanted to use it on the DragonWing), but i never used it for real. Now i want to know what you are thinking about it.
Problem was: how to keep the skin of composite wings as light as possible. Aeriane made the SWIFT composite hangglider have a white skin which has tiny holes in it (porous. Right word??). This way the material gets lighter. But you cannot let the glider stay outside in rain as the water gets to the composite skin and if freezing it can damage the wings. Also it needs to cure a day before the next step in wing making can happen.
My solution: why not use the wrapping they do on cars? It is suuuuper light. It can withstand rain, it also is a protection for UV, it is super fast applied at the end of the building process. It can handle complex curves. And ... you get it in all kind of colours. It could also make it possible to have very easy nice graphic on your wings like they do on personalised cars.
If they install it on cars that can drive 300 km/h. Why would it not be possible to install in on a wing of a ultralight? It saves a day in production. And it is much lighter than the outer layer on those shiny white wings (sorry, i forgot how that material is called).
Problem was: how to keep the skin of composite wings as light as possible. Aeriane made the SWIFT composite hangglider have a white skin which has tiny holes in it (porous. Right word??). This way the material gets lighter. But you cannot let the glider stay outside in rain as the water gets to the composite skin and if freezing it can damage the wings. Also it needs to cure a day before the next step in wing making can happen.
My solution: why not use the wrapping they do on cars? It is suuuuper light. It can withstand rain, it also is a protection for UV, it is super fast applied at the end of the building process. It can handle complex curves. And ... you get it in all kind of colours. It could also make it possible to have very easy nice graphic on your wings like they do on personalised cars.
If they install it on cars that can drive 300 km/h. Why would it not be possible to install in on a wing of a ultralight? It saves a day in production. And it is much lighter than the outer layer on those shiny white wings (sorry, i forgot how that material is called).
