Hi Guys;
I am interested in know what negative effect would be suffered, if I built a Titan-like Mustang replica, and used low-profile pulled rivets (avex for example) on certain areas of the wing and fuselage.
A bit of background: The Titan-51 3/4 scale Mustang, uses large CNC shaped foam blocks inside its wing leading edges. The leading edge aluminum skin is glued to the foam. I see a few advantages with this, such as no rivets required near the L.E., no wing nose ribs in the LE, and smoother airflow.
I recall from Aerospace classes that if you're going to focus on making some parts of the wing as smooth as possible, it better be the front 25% or so. After that, domed rivets will add drag, but the effect won't be as bad as using them in front of the main spar.
So can anyone give an educated guess as to how bad the drag would be if I were to use low-profile avex rivets on the entire airframe. Please assume that I've accounted for the fact that roughly 5 avex rivets are needed for every 3 solid rivets that would otherwise have been used, to equal the structural strength.
So, how bad is the aerodynamic penalty? If the Titan cruises at 150mph, how much of a drop would there be if these rivets were used on all the leading edge skins of the wings?
I would like to stay with pulled rivets to simplify construction.
Thanks, and I realize there's no easy, definitive answer.
Tom.
I am interested in know what negative effect would be suffered, if I built a Titan-like Mustang replica, and used low-profile pulled rivets (avex for example) on certain areas of the wing and fuselage.
A bit of background: The Titan-51 3/4 scale Mustang, uses large CNC shaped foam blocks inside its wing leading edges. The leading edge aluminum skin is glued to the foam. I see a few advantages with this, such as no rivets required near the L.E., no wing nose ribs in the LE, and smoother airflow.
I recall from Aerospace classes that if you're going to focus on making some parts of the wing as smooth as possible, it better be the front 25% or so. After that, domed rivets will add drag, but the effect won't be as bad as using them in front of the main spar.
So can anyone give an educated guess as to how bad the drag would be if I were to use low-profile avex rivets on the entire airframe. Please assume that I've accounted for the fact that roughly 5 avex rivets are needed for every 3 solid rivets that would otherwise have been used, to equal the structural strength.
So, how bad is the aerodynamic penalty? If the Titan cruises at 150mph, how much of a drop would there be if these rivets were used on all the leading edge skins of the wings?
I would like to stay with pulled rivets to simplify construction.
Thanks, and I realize there's no easy, definitive answer.
Tom.
