Couple quick questions about wings, never built one before but it might be my next project.
Does anyone have plans for a ~32" wing that isn't foam? Something with ribs and spars and sheeting, I'm planning on modding it and putting retracts in (possibly).
Has anyone ever built a plane with carbon ribs/ spars and balsa or ply sheeting instead of balsa ribs? Or would that actually work?
What about sheeting the wings with fiberglass, or would that be too difficult?
Sorry for all the questions, I don't know much about planes yet.

The only smallish built-up delta wing I recall seeing is the Diamond Dust, but rumor has it those kits are near impossible to find. I don't know if plans are available or not. I'm sure something is out there, though. I can't imagine that nobody's cooked up anything like that, and if it's been created then it's almost certainly somewhere on RCG. Worse case, it really shouldn't be too hard to roll your own. Coupla ribs, some spars, and a bit of covering will have you in the air in fine form.

As for carbon ribs and spars, it mostly sounds impractical. I mean, you could certainly cut ribs out of CF sheeting and turn them into an airplane, but they'd offer no significant benefit over regular balsa ribs and would probably end up being heavier. CF's extra strength and stiffness wouldn't be very helpful considering that an ordinary balsa rib is way more than capable of sustaining the loads placed on it in flight; the ribs are mainly there to provide structure and transfer their little portions of the load to the spars, which take the real punishment. CF spars would probably be of use in a very fast, powerful, and/or heavy plane, but once again I think balsa is way more than enough for most planes. I've been building with balsa for some time now and I continue to be blown away by the raw strength that can be achieved with extremely light structures through a bit of planning and good design skills.

Fiberglass is good stuff. It provides strength, durability, and a nice finishing surface, and it's not difficult to work with. The trick, though, is that you have to install it over an existing solid structure, e.g. wing sheeting. You can't just string it across open spaces like you can with iron-on film.

You may find more information in this forum:

http://www.rcgroups.com/nurfl-gel-762/

I'll try and whip up a little plan with a basic airfoil and see how it looks, I'm not used to this in boats because you can't just whip it up real quick, it all has to be nice and perfect.
Do wings ever have flaps/ flaperons? Or should I start looking more at powered gliders if I want that?

Flaperons don't exactly work well with wings since the trailing edge surfaces, called elevons, are used both for pitch and roll control. Instead of deploying flaps, you just end up with a down-pitch command. To get an effect sort of similar to flaps, you'd need to use split elevons to cancel each other out. That's more of an airbrake (makes drag, slows plane) than a flap (increases lift, lets plane fly slower), though.

Here are plans for a few delta's:

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/search/re...&Submit=Search

And here are lots of plans\information for nurflugels:

http://aerodesign.de/

For a first wing I would recommend a delta as success is more likely.


T.D.

nice site about those deltas !

BTW, the delta plans at Outerzone.com can be scaled up (or down) and will fly nicely.


T.D.

I have been foolin around with a superfly clone, sort of.. 1'st time to fool with $ store foam, like!!! easy and fun..zeeeezeeeeeZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sweet, I think I found a good delta. It's for some other guy so I emailed him with the plans and I'll see if he likes it.

Originally Posted by boaterguy

Couple quick questions about wings, never built one before but it might be my next project.
Does anyone have plans for a ~32" wing that isn't foam? Something with ribs and spars and sheeting, I'm planning on modding it and putting retracts in (possibly).
Has anyone ever built a plane with carbon ribs/ spars and balsa or ply sheeting instead of balsa ribs? Or would that actually work?
What about sheeting the wings with fiberglass, or would that be too difficult?
Sorry for all the questions, I don't know much about planes yet.

Here is one, it uses balsa and plywood ribs and carbon fiber spars.

SWEET!! I had my bid Pitts canopy in my hand today and sat it down on my in development wing and.......COOL!!! I may try this and use the back of the canopy as a place for the motor mount! Looks like a UFO ZeeZee/Dave

speaking of pitts, this flying wing has turned into a balsa model 12