At 05:28 PM 5/19/2002 -0700, you wrote: >No, the Craft Air Windrifter did NOT use a standard Clark Y >airfoil. > I built and flew several of these in competition during the >'70s. And didn't do too bad for a high school kid competing in >the open class with all those BIG people. Took home the wood a >few times. Oh well, back to the airfoil. It was a proprietary >12.5% turbulated 'foil that is also used on the Sailaire. Flat >bottomed yes, Clark Y - NO! It would climb like an helium angel, >but when the wind came up it was like throwing out the anchor!! >It was a great ship for earning your LSF Level 1 & 2 duration >and precision. It was also good for the Level 2 contest points >if you could still enter in the 'greenhorn' class!! We used 'em >a lot for carrying things like cameras, FF HLG's, parachutes, >etc. because a person can REALLY load this plane up with weight >and it just doesn't seem to mind. As versatile as a Paragon, but >cheaper. It was a better plane than the 2m Drifter for about the >same amount of work to construct. > >I still have 2 NIB Windrifter kits that I have been hanging on >to for reminiscing. I MIGHT possibly be persuaded to let go of >one. > >Cap'n Crunchie > The Spica airfoil from SoarTech 8 is a good approximation of the airfoil used on the Sailaire and Drifter. In fact, it was based on the Sailaire airfoil. Back in 1978, I designed a trainer for my club. I had just finished a Sailaire and liked the way it flew. I took the leading edge radius, maximum thickness, location of maximum thickness, and trailing edge angle of the Sailaire and faired the top surface with a #64 French curve. Bottom surface was of course a straght line. I built a wind tunnel model of the resulting airfoil for inclusion in Michael Selig's first series of wind tunnel test in the Princeton wind tunnel to provide a baseline airfoil to compare with more modern airfoils. Since it was so similar to many of the kits being produced in California at the time, I called the airfoil a Generic California Flat Bottom. This tile was too long for the report so the name was changed to Spica since that was the name of the model it was first used on. Coordinates for the Spica airfoil in COR format can be found on page 145 of SoarTech 8. Coordinates of the Spica airfoil in AIR format are also included with Airfoil Plot and Model Design plotting programs.
Chuck Anderson RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
