grant-RCU

My Feedback: (10)

What is the major difference in the way a constant chord wing flys compared to a tapered swept wing.

For example a 60x12 inch wing constant chord vs a 60 x 16 inch root / 8 inch tip chord with 2 inches of sweep

Spar height 1.5 inches constant on the 60x12 and spar height 2 inches at the 16 inch root tapering down to 1 inch at the 8 inch tip chord on the swept wing.

Does a swept tapered wing give a plane better aerobatic performance? will the swept wing tip stall easier?

Is it really that much of a difference in the way they fly?

Tall Paul

For specific purposes, each wing is "best".. no one wing is best for all jobs.
Sweeping adds lateral stabilty without dihedral.
It permits a further aft c.g., relative to a straight wing, which can alleviate nose weight due to tail weight.

Jim Thomerson

Flying Control Line Stunt airplanes, one sees that constant chord airplanes bounce and wiggle around in the wind noticeably more than similar airplanes with tapered wings.

Jim

Montague

From flying combat, where we spend a lot of time right on the edge of stall, but generally try to avoid stalling (ie, no 3D, snapping is a bad thing, etc), constant chord wings generally seem to have a softer stall, a slower snaproll, and recover from the stall faster. But you give up roll rate, speed (in theory), and the structure is heavier.

I use a constant chord wing in SSC class, where the planes are slow, light, and power-limited, but tapered wings in other classes, where I can power out of trouble.

All depends on what you want your plane to do.

Jimmbbo

Among other things, the stall angle of attack depends on the size of the airfoil.

In a tapered wing, the tip airfoil is smaller than the root, which allows the tip to stall at a lower AOA. Tapered wings usually have a bit of washout (tip chord line is "twisted" leading edge down relative to the root chord) the at the tip to correct for this.

Cheers!

Jim