On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Graham Singleton wrote:
> >>I'm very happy with my airplane, but don't wish to be associated (by
> remaining
> silent) with any comment that states that it flys "as advertised". Sorry <<
>
> I've flown several Europas, (not including Alan's ) and have been surprised
> by the wide variation in performance. At one end Kim Prout and his
> apparently "standard" ship which achieves 150 kts full speed and at the
> other G-KITS which seems to have a built in headwind.
> I scratch my head but have yet to discover a simple or single reason for
> differences.
> Graham
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.
Could it be that there are 400 or so diffrent airfoils on the different
Europas? Sure would like to see some airfoil measurements from the
fastest and slowest planes. Boeing uses my Statistical Process Control
software to monitor the process variations in the manufacture of many of
the composite components for the 757, 767, 777 and V-22 Osprey. I know
their tolerances are FAR greater than a builder can achieve without any
specifications to build to.
Steve Eberhart
newtech@newtech.com
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