Message text written by INTERNET:europa@avnet.co.uk
>I have always wondered how true to the design airfoil profile you could
build a hot wired foam core wing when you weren't given coordinates or
templates for key stations. Dr. Selig at the University of Illinois,
co-designer of the NLF(1)-0115 airfoil that I think is very similar to
Don Dykins Europa Airfoil, is very annimate about the accuracy necessary
to achieve all of the design characteristics of any given airfoil.<
Same issue we have been discussing alot: Unless you build 'em in stiff
molds, these wings will not come out the same. Using a laminar profile
makes things worse since long laminar flow will only be achieved by keeping
the profile within very small tolerances. Thirty five years of making
laminar flow glider wings with the lowest drag coefficients to be found for
our Reynolds numbers should have proven this. All gliders of same type are
very close in performance and we race against each other with the pilot
being the big variable.
I sure am glad Ivan is finally making wing skins from a hopefully good mold
(Europa XS), which in turn has been either NC milled directly or was make
---From a highly precise master plug.
Herbert
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