Long-Flight Glider Design — Engineering_
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Drawing GLD-007 · Entry 07 · Oct 2024

Long-Flight Glider Design

Aerodynamics · Aerospace Engineering coursework
Complete

An aerodynamics build: use Aery to iterate a glider toward long, straight flight, then build and fly it. Balance, wing sizing, and stabilizer placement turned out to be what mattered most.

Design approach

  • Iterated designs in Aery, selecting a reverse-canard layout because it produced the highest Aery number.
  • Rounded the leading edges, cambered the trailing edges, and tuned center-of-gravity and stabilizer placement for stable, level flight.
  • Added rubber bands at launch to increase release speed.

Result

  • The final glider flew ~36 ft in ~1.2 s (~30 ft/s) on a 5° launch.

Specifications

Configuration:Reverse canard
Wingspan:16.76 cm
Aspect ratio:3.14
Wing CL:3.52
Center of gravity:11.30 cm
Nose mass:4.85 g
Materials:Basswood + balsa
Result:~36 ft (~30 ft/s)
Tools:AeryAerodynamic analysisBalsa/basswood build

Attachments

Glider project slidesOpen ↗

Aery results, design features, and flight test.

Complete · Designer, scale 1:1Aerodynamics