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Old 5th June 2006 | 20:18
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Confabulous
 
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 338
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From: Ireland
Speaking of x-plane and microlights, I wondered what the maximum level flight speed of a 450kg VLA would be, so I designed a rough model. It has an 80hp engine (neglecting cooling drag for the moment, also with retractable gear and a NACA23-016 shaped fuselage (carbonfibre, 0.012 Cd without any antennae, pure aerofoil shape)) the wings are NACA23016 (root) and NACA0009 (tip) with 1 degree of washout. Horizontal tail surfaces don't exist, the elevator is part of the aerofoil-shape fuselage. It's taildragger until I can figure out how to curb the psuedo-groundloop behaviour of the nosedragger!

Some interesting results...


(All results are at MAUW)

212KTAS at METO (1800ft, ISA standard)

184KTAS at 75% (1800ft, ISA standard)

1700fpm ROC @ 86KIAS

Stall is elevator limited at around 55kts (power off, flaps up)

Stalls at 28kts (power on, flaps down)

Just an excercise, but an interesting one!

(And yes, I know the Cd is very low, should be around 0.017, but it's only a rough model)

Last edited by Confabulous; 5th June 2006 at 20:48.
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