Aires Sharp is a micro DLG that uses 3-4 servo's for full camber changing and different flight modes. It is extremely small, yet despite it's small size the performance is rather interesting to say the least.

The wing was designed with the aid of XFLR5 and many different airfoils were used to find what seemed to give the highest L/D and slowest flight speed to create a good sink rate. After the wing was modeled in CAD based on the wing that had the best numbers in XFLR5 some of the geometry was bent and twisted using nothing else other then a good sense of intuition or intelligent guess.

The DLG is still in testing as of 20160422. Prototype 2 is almost complete and due to added reinforcements it will have a higher wing loading. In the first flight test, the 12pm afternoon breeze had begun and the DLG seemed to live up to it's name. It's sharp clean design and good alignment of all parts allowed it to slip and cut through the air, so it's penetration was impressive.

New wings are being looked at. Slight span size might increase to allow for the extra reinforcements to be added to increase the durability, yet keeping the wing loading around the right spot.

Aires Sharp V1 Specs:

Airfoil: 20141119 tip +2
Wing Span: (26.71") (678.44mm)
Wing Area: 98.73 square inches
AUW 48-51grams


Very First Flight Test of Aires Sharp - Same wing without Flaprons tested on Whipit UMX pod and boom

Aires Sharp Micro DLG - Performance VERY Impressive... (5 min 3 sec)

Flights were done today at Thousand Oak's Soaring Society Club field. A few members got a chance to test it out.

R

Aires Sharp OFFICAL FLIGHT TEST (15 min 3 sec)

great flying plane!
Awesome music!

Cheers,

Marco

That is really nice !! When will they be available to order?

I am in a state of bliss watching Lex fly the Aires Sharp. I believe this design has a long future.

I want to thank Lex for getting me out of my workshop and out flying. I thank you for your support in this. It's really quit amazing and surprising to me that this thing is flying like it does. I never anticipated it doing this well.

I want to thank Matt, the designer of the Whipit UMX. If I had not bought one when I was at the hobby store browsing stuff, the Aires Sharp would never have gotten made. The Whipit UMX proved how, with good engineering, small things can in fact fly exceptionally well.

It's all about fine tuning all these numbers until you get the desired effect, even if you cannot intellectualize why the wing is working so well.

Thanks to GT for all the XFLR5 tutorials and creating a lot of breakthrough airfoils to work with. One of the key reasons I believe it's flying so well. Synergy II wing tip airfoils are what did it.

Thanks to Sam for keeping me grounded. Sharp wingtips = bad...

Anyways, The process of refining this into a kit is a rather tricky process. I will be trying to find companies or individuals to help make parts so these can be made available to all at an affordable price. That is a process that may take time. It's something I will have to learn. So, that's the next challenge. Other details will all work out. The key aspects of this design are pretty much done for now. It will take time to see if it can even be improved in possible future versions, but that's not for a long time.

Robert

Sweeeeet!!!

very excellent! I will start saving now!

subscribed

i love my binary 900, and i really want a strike2 as well, but this looks great

nice work !

what servos are you using ? this looks like the sweetest option for an ultra-portable high performance dlg...

as someone who spent a lot of late afternoons flying simple chuck gliders, i can see the attraction

however, i would also see the benefit of keeping it as a simple rudder / elevator version to minimise wing loading because variable camber and ailerons seem to be overkill for a tiny but marvellous toy

cheaper, lighter, just as much fun

Aires Sharp is undergoing the 2nd stage of prototyping before hopefully moving onto 3rd stage which will end up being the final product. The wing span will be rounded off to 700mm or .7m

I have done my best to create a whole new sets of airfoils. No airfoils exist for this size and design of a glider. It really in just a baby version of a 1.5m DLG so the airfoils are going to be kind of like what's out there now for the bigger DLG's but optimized for the Reynolds number. The new set of airfoils I have made were done to hopefully improve float. They were born from many derivatives and interpolations of new DLG airfoils buy thinned out to go with the Reynolds number and the original airfoil that was a good starting point. The original airfoil I used was design to be a low drag airfoil for the tip of a 1.5m DLG. It was the second to last tip airfoil from the Synergy II airfoil family. Anyways these new airfoils are altered and changed quite a bit, so I hope to see even better performance.

After I have done the 2nd generation prototype it is hoped we can find an expert to refine the 3d generation wing to perfection. Then we will be hopefully moving on to production. The production end of things will hopefully be handled by Lex (dlgdude) as I asked him if he'd like to manage this project as pretty much in charge, and thankfully he seems to be quite happy to do it, so it's in good hands and will have a realistic future.

I have made my attempts to refine the wing for the Aires Sharp, Wing V2..

It was mentioned that there didn't seem to be enough float.. Well, now, I'm going nuts in search of float...

Here are pics of my efforts.. New airfoils..

The Analysis continues and I think I'm starting to find a few options.

I've created all new airfoils to the best of my abilities. I think we will capture more float soon..

I hope..

R

CNC Machine issues have made this a very difficult week. One thing after another going wrong in the process to mill 2 sets of wing molds. Many many hours wasted.

Need to take a break and try again Monday.

R

Robert,

Thanks to Lex I had the opportunity to fly the bird at the IHLGF. It was in gusty Poway breezes, perhaps not ideal for this little gal, but she did just fine. Excellent penetration, with the ability to move around at will, with no sign of tip stalling or other ugly traits.

Great job sir! Keep up the good work...

Dick

Robert, i Have had a similar week. We just need to keep trudging away.

At the IHLGF one would expect to see DLGs at the forefront of development. after walking down the line I saw no DLG in the competition that was not sourced from a commercial manufacturing source. By that I mean, all the planes were purchased planes and available. This is a marked difference from experiences obsevered in previous IHLGFs.

However, the fun planes are still in development and there was one plane, the Aires Sharp, that was brought out and flown by Lex. He also offered many others the chance to fly it and many got their chance.

As part of desiring to add this plane to my HLG/DLG web database, see http://fieldguidetomodeling.com/, I took pictures to document the prototype being flown. The pictures below show many of the details that make this plane fly well. The build description is in earlier posts in this thread, but pictures are always better, hence the shot I took. The wing is covered with CF matt, the fuselage is an eggshell of 30 g/m2 carboweave, the boom is CF and looks like a freeflight TLG boom, and the tails are sheet covered with CF matt. The hatch is held in place with two magnets and is easily removeable. All surfaces are pull-pull with threads. The wing has flaperons, but Lex mentioned that they are not ad effective as one might expect. I do not know if it is because the plane is so light or that is adds too much drag for such a light plane. In the wind is appeared to penetrate well but was still bounced around. There is no launch peg, rather one grips the wing between the thumb and fingers and flips it up. It is a very much advanced Whipet, but not a Whipet! Lex informed us that this plane is still in the prototype stage , so stay tuned.

Enjoy.

Chris

Originally Posted by Thermaln2

At the IHLGF one would expect to see DLGs at the forefront of development. after walking down the line I saw no DLG in the competition that was not sourced from a commercial manufacturing source. By that I mean, all the planes were purchased planes and available. This is a marked difference from experiences obsevered in previous IHLGFs.

However, the fun planes are still in development and there was one plane, the Aires Sharp, that was brought out and flown by Lex. He also offered many others the chance to fly it and many got their chance.

As part of desiring to add this plane to my HLG/DLG web database, see http://fieldguidetomodeling.com/, I took pictures to document the prototype being flown. The pictures below show many of the details that make this plane fly well. The build description is in earlier posts in this thread, but pictures are always better, hence the shot I took. The wing is covered with CF matt, the fuselage is an eggshell of 30 g/m2 carboweave, the boom is CF and looks like a freeflight TLG boom, and the tails are sheet covered with CF matt. The hatch is held in place with two magnets and is easily removeable. All surfaces are pull-pull with threads. The wing has flaperons, but Lex mentioned that they are not ad effective as one might expect. I do not know if it is because the plane is so light or that is adds too much drag for such a light plane. In the wind is appeared to penetrate well but was still bounced around. There is no launch peg, rather one grips the wing between the thumb and fingers and flips it up. It is a very much advanced Whipet, but not a Whipet! Lex informed us that this plane is still in the prototype stage , so stay tuned.

Enjoy.

Chris

Thank you for that article. I'm glad others got to try it out. It's in development to no end.. I hope the new wing will perform better and I believe the flaprons are going to be more effective.