Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
5. Make sure the Vtrim you input in cell K21 is the same value the spreadsheet calculates in cell
E39. This value changes every time an adjustment to the glider design is made.
6. The L/D ratio should be as high as possible, but if its too high (more than about 12), they
could be designing a glider thats unrealistic. Just look at the design, and something may jump
out at you.
7. Be sure the angle of attack () isnt too high anything more than about 10 degrees or so.
They may have to redesign the entire glider to make this one work. This could also be the
result of a too small a horizontal tail. If the tail is small, the incidence angle must be high,
which causes the trim angle of attack to increase.
8. Be sure the tail incidence angle (it) isnt too high... anything more that about 10 degrees or
so. If it is, they need a bigger horizontal tail. Their L/D ratio may decrease, but the glider
wont be stable without a decent tail!
9. When you are satisfied with your gliders layout, evaluate its stability and glide
performance. Investigate different combinations of parameters to optimize L/D while
satisfying stability constraints. Refer to the following table for stability guidelines:
STABILITY
TYPE
PRIMARY
CONTRIBUTOR
Longitudinal
(pitch)
Wing
&
Horizontal Tail
DESIGN PARAMETER
SUGGESTED RANGE
TO INCREASE
DESIGN PARAMETER
Directional
(yaw)
Vertical Tail
Dir/Lat ratio
(yaw/roll)
10. You must be able to cut your glider from the 4-x-18 sheet of balsa wood. Before you cut,
sketch each component (scale: each block is one inch square) on the diagram below:
11. Do not glue the horizontal tail to the fuselage but to use rubber bands and wooden wedges
to attach the tail so that you can adjust the tail incidence angle on fly-off day. However, it may
be beneficial to glue the horizontal tail to the fuselage at an incidence angle at which the glider
seems to fly well, and then adjust the speed by adding/subtracting ballast.