fwd sweep

[viti]

in the full size world of gliders ,there is a glider called :blanik" this glider has forward swept wings,i have never seen this on any other glider and have always wondered why?? also ,why are v-tails not common in full size if there are ground handling advantanges etc??? TIA

viti

[Ollie]

The Blanik you refer to is a two place sailplane. the forward sweep of the wings puts the wing root behind the aft seated pilot and give better visibility. It also puts the wing joiner carry through behind the pilot. At the same time the CG of the aft pilot is much closer to the CG of the plane so that there is less CG shift when the aft seat is unoccupied.

V-tails are more complicated to design and also the control linkage mixing is much more complex.

[John Walter]

As always, Ollie is right on the mark. The plane you refer to is the Blanik L-13. I'm currently building a 1/6th scale model. It is the most popular 2 seat sailplane (over 2500 built).

Another 2-seat forward swept wing is the Slingsby T-53B also known as the Sovereign.

[schrederman]

There are many forward swept wings on 2-place sailplanes, for texactly the reason Ollie points out. There are some forward swept single-place designs, like the Genesis II......


Jack Womack
On loan from the full scale community......