Folks:
I’ve spent the last 6 months at my school doing a senior engineering project that has ended up being a tailless pusher UAV small enough to be man-packable and capable of delivering a NATO 40 mm grenade round against enemy personnel.
I have read up a lot about nurflügel aerodynamics (ok, not a lot. SOME.
) and have become somewhat fascinated with/attached to our design. I read a transcription of a speech given by Ilan Kroo,
http://www.desktop.aero/library/OAW_Publications/Published_Documents/Kroo_tailless.pdf
..and a pretty technical model aircraft site:
https://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/flywing1.htm
..and so my interest in part 103 gliders logically led me to study the Swift, of course designed by Kroo and his students at Stanford.
I understand they are still being produced by Aeriane in Belgium, with a US representative.
Does anyone know what the current MSRP is on this glider in the US? Not many seem to come up for sale, so I have no idea what the residual value on a used Swift may be.
From a design perspective, it looks like he minimized the taper ratio, got as much aspect ratio as he could practically get, and wow look at the section! Does anyone know what foil that is and what thickness? Clearly he went for as tall as he could go for strength and still have good flight properties. It almost reminds me of a Liebeck section. Do we know if it was intended to be laminar?
Thanks for any interest or discussion, I’m mainly passively interested in what appears to be a unique yet successful design. I think it’s a beautiful aircraft.
-Austin
I’ve spent the last 6 months at my school doing a senior engineering project that has ended up being a tailless pusher UAV small enough to be man-packable and capable of delivering a NATO 40 mm grenade round against enemy personnel.
I have read up a lot about nurflügel aerodynamics (ok, not a lot. SOME.
) and have become somewhat fascinated with/attached to our design. I read a transcription of a speech given by Ilan Kroo,http://www.desktop.aero/library/OAW_Publications/Published_Documents/Kroo_tailless.pdf
..and a pretty technical model aircraft site:
https://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/flywing1.htm
..and so my interest in part 103 gliders logically led me to study the Swift, of course designed by Kroo and his students at Stanford.
I understand they are still being produced by Aeriane in Belgium, with a US representative.
Does anyone know what the current MSRP is on this glider in the US? Not many seem to come up for sale, so I have no idea what the residual value on a used Swift may be.
From a design perspective, it looks like he minimized the taper ratio, got as much aspect ratio as he could practically get, and wow look at the section! Does anyone know what foil that is and what thickness? Clearly he went for as tall as he could go for strength and still have good flight properties. It almost reminds me of a Liebeck section. Do we know if it was intended to be laminar?
Thanks for any interest or discussion, I’m mainly passively interested in what appears to be a unique yet successful design. I think it’s a beautiful aircraft.
-Austin
