• 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!

Here goes...corrugated spar/wing idea

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

JDub

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
90
Location
Tri Cities, WA
I was really inspired by Orion's postings and he kind of gave me an idea. This is what I wrote to him not knowing of his passing today. It was private because it is kind of carrying on with his corrugated wing idea and I was thanking him (again-and am leaving that out of this post) for helping me out in June with my Tailwind project. I know the design process is long, but here goes.

I also wanted to let you know I am intrigued with the corrugated wing design you were doing and wanted to know how it worked out if it is finished. It has actually got me thinking quite a bit about it over the past month and I kind of wanted to pitch a configuration at you to see if it is worth looking more into. No facts and figures or mechanics-just a configuration for now for a wing design-not for the Tailwind, but right now I am thinking (cantilever?) parasol, but that is getting a little ahead of myself. It would use the corrugated internal structure bent from a flat aluminum sheet along the length of a hershey bar wing like a piece of tin for a roof only forming the peaks and the valleys in the shape of the airfoil. Looking from the side the airfoil would look like a truss. At this stage there is no nose or tail of the "airfoil" yet...a funky piece of tin with weird angles and squared off peaks and valleys wide enough for a rivet row, so to speak. Then take that and rivet strips of aluminum geodetic style to the peaks on each side of that airfoil. Now it would look like the tin with a unwoven chain link fence on each side. Then take thick narrow strips of aluminum and configure for the "ribs" so you would eliminate the faceted ridges between the peaks and valleys and attach those on the top and bottom. Then form a leading edge out of aluminum sheet traditional style and attach that to the rib strips in the front. Use the trailing edge as a rear spar and attach hinges for simple ailerons (flaperons would be cool too) like on the Tailwind to it. Cover the whole thing with fabric ala the "Maule" attachment technique to eliminate the difficult rib stitching due to the geodetic underneath. In my mind this could be a light rigid wing for a semi-quick airplane-not looking for the fastest, but for my own education. Once I figure out the materials I would need, I could build one up 10-12 feet wide without the fabric support it in the center and throw some sandbags on it and try and break it. One question I would have at this point is how else should I "lab test" a wing? Like I said I wanted to pitch this at you and see what you think and see if my brain is going down the right track. Not looking for a radical design, but maybe something easy to construct and cut down on material waste. My adventures have produced a lot and it is kind of annoying me with the cost of waste-a lot self-induced, but not all and I don't get much of that back by recycling. Aluminum cans are worth more than aircraft aluminum for some reason. Thanks for your inspiring ideas on the forum-it is by far my favorite.

Comments/suggestions? Keep in mind I am at the napkin stage.
 
Back
Top