• This community needs YOUR help today!

    With the ever-increasing fees of maintaining our vibrant community (servers, software, domains, email), we need help.
    We need more Supporting Members today.

    Please invest back into this community to help spread our love and knowledge of home-built aviation.

    Why support HomebuiltAirplanes.com?

    • 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.
    • Enjoy enhanced account features that enrich your experience, including the ability to disable ads.

    This is your chance to make a difference. Become a Supporting Member today:

    Upgrade Now

Clipped Wing

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

lake_harley

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
1,083
In considering an aircraft design I understand that the stall speed would be higher with a reduction of wingspan. Would the increase in stall speed be fairly linear, in relationship to the % of the reduction of the wingspan? (This borders on Mark Stull's "wingtip losses" thread) Specifically, I'm referring to a 10% span reduction, not a greater amount like 25-30%

Concerning climb rate (FPM) and cruise speed, how would they be affected using the same HP engine in a standard version vs. the clipped wing version? The weight of the clipped wing version would be slightly less, just by the reduction of wing structure, but I wouldn't think enough to significantly affect performance by itself. Would the ROC and Speed suffer or benefit from a 10% wingspan reduction, and in simple terms, why?

I have been reading Raymer's "Simplified Aircraft Design For Homebuilders" and so far it hasn't been simplified enough for me to ferret out the answer to my particular questions. I have a particular ultralight in mind but I'd imagine the answer(s) would apply to all small planes.

Thanks, in advance

Lynn
 
Back
Top