Having exhausted (hopefully) the topic of cutting tools....
Last year most of the time I flew planes with wing rods and a simple dihedral. Toward the end of the year I got some serious time in on an Xtreme V-tail. On that plane, for those who don't know, the wing has a flat center section and both wing tips are up, I suppose that makes it a polyhedral plane. Most molded planes have that wing shape, along with the Genie and the Aegea.
What theoretical advantages are there to one or the other design. I can see from a practical perspective, you can make a lighter overall wing using the polyhedral system. Having a wing rod (i.e.hinge) directly at the point of maximum bending moment never did seem like a really swift idea. On the other hand, you have two smaller wing rods out away from the fuse right where you don't want any extra mass.
From my limited stick time, I have to say that I was impressed with the thermalling of the polyhedral Xtreme. Long minutes of virtually hands off circling up. Perhaps I was just lucky in having exactly the correct set-up for *that* thermal, I dunno. I don't know if I would see that sorta handling/performance with other polyhedral planes or just my Xtreme. What are the observations of other with regard to simple dihedral vs polyhedral for unlimited, 4-6 servo-winged 3+ meter planes?
Or if you would rather, we can go back to chatting about sharpening Xacto blades. ;-)
Bill
-- Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.
Bill Johns
Pullman, WA
USA
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