Binary Star

摘要

For as long as I have been designing my own model aircraft, I have been trying out unconventional designs. Perhaps half of my modelling output has been aircraft of conventional layout, and half unconventional. I have made canards, flying wings, delta wings and, as here, tandem wing biplanes. It has been mostly great fun, but sometimes very frustrating, trimming and modifying unconventional designs to fly well. Any stable aircraft with multiple lifting surfaces flies with a higher wing loading on the forward surface than on the rear surface, which means that the conventional layout is the most efficient way to fly. The forward wing is the most heavily loaded, and therefore is the one, which should be the biggest for efficient flight.rnOne of the problems canards present is the potential inability of the foreplane to carry the load placed upon it by the need for stability and the pitching moment of a cambered wing. Thus canards are usually seen with larger foreplanes than conventional models have tailplanes. A symmetrical section on the main plane, or a zero pitching moment reflex cambered section, is also a big help. A flying wing has a very narrow margin within which to work to obtain both sufficient pitch stability and control. What are the characteristics of the tandem wing layout? We will see...