plane with canards, could it work?

[windywestflyer]

It's time that I rebuilt my airplane after it's crash. I was playing around with the idea of building tandem wings or a canard configuration. This would allow me to move the center of gravity backwards and produce a pusher plane with no propwash and no engine left-thrust. I have a hard time trying to find information on how to do that though.

What I am thinking is horizontal and vertical stabilizers in the front with a wing in the rear just above the engine. The CG would be forward of the main wing.

I can't find anything on this so if anyone has any ideas about how it might work please tell me. Especially if it is about wind because I live in a very windy place. Or if anyone has had experiance with this kind of craft I would be grateful to hear from them.

[JetPlaneFlyer]

Obviously canard configurations can work but you would have to locate the vertical stab at the rear not the front. placing twin stabs on the wing tips, as far rearward as possible is often the way its done but a single stab on the rear of the fuselage would also work if it were large enough and far enough rearward.

CG usually falls a little in front of the rear wing LE but this varies greatly dependant on the area of the canard foreplane and the fuselage length. A small scale chuck glider is a good way to establish the correct CG and to make sure you have enough vertical stab.

You may still need thrust offset as reaction torque is an issue regardless of pusher or tractor config. An additional issue with pushers is having adequate ground clearance on the prop if you want to take off from the ground, a very long undercarriage is required.


Steve

[Work in Progress]

You don't say what sort of bits you are starting with, but have a look at this sort of thing and you should get some ideas. Swept wings are often favoured, as are wingtip-mounted fins / rudders, to increase the moment arms for the vertical control surfaces, but straight wings work fine if you don't mind carrying a bit more fuselage around.

http://www.eagle.ca/~harry/aircraft/shinden/
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/rutan_quickie.php
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepLongEZ.html

Definitely agree with Steve about making a little chuckie to confirm the C of G, and the point about the reaction torque.

[eflightray]

wingwestflyer

If you don't mind a bit of digging, there are 268 threads with 'canard' in their titles, and 10 threads with 'tandem wing' in their titles.

This canard thread - Canard Forum: Show,Discuss, Learn (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=613556) is probably a good place to start if you fancy a canard.

and for tandem - Tandem Wing Stability & Control (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=750374) and - Tandem wing design (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=606050)

Hope there is something that helps and inspires.

[Airboatflyingshp]

Windy .... if you work your way through the first link Rays put up you will come across just about every canard configuration out and links to the calculators, but your guaranteed help.