PART 2 Further refinements for improved biplane performance by CARL AISTEEN Secrets |ART 1 OF this article briefly covered the evolution of algplanes, and how i ed 10 Diplanes, with their problem of mutual wing interference, and methods to combat it, Also covered were the effects of stagger, decalage, wing haps und ialdenes, This part covers farther refinements that have been shown to improve biplane pecformance In Part 3, in the next issue, 11 look at ‘riplanes and some angles on bipe fun-ly designs and more on interplane strut design, Althoug® long-time favorites rete scen pres arrears ‘oC scale modelers, tipes have nol except for few outstanding nodes, fared ll that well ®eainst monoplanes in purely performance: ened mode coerpetion. Thi is because Of their inherent aerodynamic shortcomings. Maay of these shortcomings ean be ofist by ‘cunning design und cor ction, thereby permitting the bipe's unique, inherent strengths shine through, hata tbe pane. ‘TAPERED WINGS: UNUSUAL BUT PERFORMANCE ERHANCING secant [ore rane pet cngine bipes ever bul. Beth featured rela: lively high-arpect-raio wings with & grace: fal and efficient seruelliptical taper. The ‘smaller DH 89 has also been considered | almost os important a the DC-3 in advanc- A 66ech-spun pane designed ¥y tn attr fo 60173 ‘toa ove ston ere wins Wot" 13 on ut air Ing ait raver, A total of 1260 DH 89s, | including the military version, the Dominic, wee Du. Many ferme intervie fot ann Tor evel hadi esi ‘vod short-fickd capability were particularly: Talatle i extesng aie orice to Lcsritediahaeren phate polia Sher antap A Willan beste cing Gul Fw fhe 190 was ee Cee | ble of supe taperedving bie Shoe ngs cv onetig of «my on tanto bees Oo mr nbd tons, Shes ag per om ore ot lh | ect wa ere Lge bang horn het Tls provides room fo despot span ia rt frat songer fr tls eight Tap ao | Berane secvtaaninins Glover te sage, acing the beng none td ude phen e uncae Tapered wings esi le sileronconel | ‘effort to produce « given roll rate, and they frase es ieron-ngucd ym, In a fon toh pfs td induced tat are etoced andi it feseaed by few pret Tals combustion of weight srk ad Uoorabed dey can cn te eras fervent plow wad eemoecing oe Ino fsa pen we been caries ln sae oft ng nding nowt hie negees mech of te incentive to cea costly taped wing enacts a thes taper ou pe the oat ant ds eo “aragy.ericing wires faiths apr wings on fy mode! pe designs and pled bse wach | sos sal selene fll ae wh Caaler servo td ner alate ban ing ee nent semen wig te Tl, ised taped wigs sc pei sod of hn Yvert pre erty be Tee yon cup peed peer seluioe at os martes | Stool oy ap ws ‘oud mento fa aly te be a ‘pene shore, benno adres Tell potay ent pee ae Spa mater! ous neepe tho of wast CisionBIPLANE SECRETS PART 2 aa Tisibiomaict Yona py nett ‘atl sane apd are), achieve ower teen angle saple of aac that rele in 3 he tips) to help keep the 2 large ft ores that opposes Aeros bushes gh up to a sasenvin |) the rll. The ral tomee dee al. (yeas | ing ike yng to sce a ear “The tps of moderately imonatinst | ty only oe ron wher, vith pared wings, Because of thet tie ote whet faked seaght ‘smaller chord, do fly at a lower ieuinaes: ahead Reynoids numer than the | aoa eae ‘As an experiment, eather than wwider-shord inboard portions performing major surgery. 1 “They also Ay in reduced down- aes. slipped « bunch of thin mi wash, slightly raising their effec tive angle of att result can be angle of attack that is half x degree oF $0 lower than with x ‘constantchoad wing, assuming ‘that the aisfoil section is con: binges ino the existing tailing ledge of the upper wing, and attached sirfotl-sectioned alleroos, The model was trans formed, and all of my bipes now sport four ailerons. Aa- omer bonus: four ailerons ‘stmt along the eae apa tke demand less than bales much to ase a consan! leading-edge = Twehioe teams | S600 efor to produce a given radius all along the wing (i | Baas | tol re, eedcing servo and makes building easier), resulting | mah ‘battery weight. 3 fae cos ir. in tip section with propor. | ho wae dp os te Siossipe fe: | Very small bipes may ro Nlonslly larger leading-edge | We cbe in ens adgeandaimcls | acceptably with omly «wo radios Ts kink may hep to | Seats Se ieee | lees, tu anything wah « Jcrease the st angis of atack | ouppeard oer eon ‘wingspan of more than about bby half a degree or so at the tip. (gapeasiomnaca tae wag, 48 inches will probably need Se, Taetee estes | Siaemmaaite es main spars with clove o ideal | fondo rtinota lke an yerobate rll rae withe taper, with small turbulator | St ‘ou excesive yaw snd dng soars in place ofthe more usual ‘Using ttle more travel on Decade fuity sheeved leading edge. Tis construction rests very ght. | ailerons would vo the job of four strong stoops wings hat on a mowo- | arrower ones. They don't Fane, woud rotatly hve marin tesonal_| Lowering an aller on the lower sitet. They work wel 00 a ipiare where | wing of a hpe lower the presi the inerplae stu provi {ot of additional torsional fering. Saving weight is oe way tora he bln Aayou wrk or you, AILERONS: ‘TWO OR FOUR? My first bipe design had ‘0, wide-chord, fullspan ailerons on the lower wing = fang no ailerons on the upper — ‘Al Willams? racog Gell Hak of ine late '30s. ‘cto courtery of Seale Mode! Rorsarh). the lower wing's tilerons seems to help to wing. That dida’® othe iceep the center of drag closer to the this: Jol. In desperation, 1 in- Mdalesuenjon 1 7707 apie. line and produce ols tha are more axial. A ‘reased the aileron travel to | ink aileron differentia aye] (more ap than neay 45 degrees each way, oven wil do pretty much the same job. bt the roll rate, though fine for seale-ike, not oniy on the upper sie ofthe lower wing, pes with upper and fower wings of Benile sport flying, was still teo slow for | but alo on much of the underside of the unequal size with a lot of aileron ared snappy aecobsties. Full aleron deflection | upper wing spanned by the aileron. Tals | on ihe larger wing have less need for roduced excessive, sloppy yawing and very | lowered presture tends to pull the upper | four aleros, Roll wesisiance ofthe no-ailerod noticeable drag. The model practically | wing down and oppose the oll. The No- | wing decreases very rapidly as its dimen- screamed for four ailerons. aileron wing also strongly rests being sone sink ‘You might think that wo double-vidin elle. Rolling induces a change i eeeHone wing has = shorter apa, for best efficiency. Its ‘chord should be ‘proportionally reduced by at lemet ae much as its span. DIHEDRAL On my aerobatic designs, I like to use a Title dihedral—somethioe Ike 1 Y2 degrees onthe lower wi and a nearly equal amount of anhedral on the upper wing. This should give a ogt result of almost zero overall dihedral elfect and remove virtually alf the yaw/roll coupling, {the weadency for rudder deflection wo caase ‘unwanted roll). Building both wings with 2210 dinedral would probly have the same effect, but it would tend to give the lower Wing a1 unusual, sagged appearance. Chink the dihedra/anhedral combination. looks be ter and, a8 a bonus. it gives the lower ‘wingtips a little more ground clearance, 1 also use sheet nylon skids unde the tips of the lower wing for additional insurance against espa rash, Few modelers go to he trout of equip. ping their bipes with bracing wires unless they are re- quited for scale Adelity. Contrary 0 legend, bipe wings make ‘poor cages. Fiting a bipe ‘vith Yne wires and all the ps phernali they email is very time- ‘consuming, andthe work does not stop when the model has been completed. Unless your vehicle ‘can accommodate a fully assem ‘bled model. you can spend alot of time atthe flying feld, fussing With the wires and ftings whea {you could be ying. Having studied the effect of bracing wires on the weight of rnon-scale bipes with thick, sym. ‘meeal ving secions, Ihave con- cluded that litle, if any, weight ‘can be saved by asing wires instead of incomporating an ideally Lupered hor-section spar. How: rer, to avovd showering the fying | Feld with assorted airplane picces, scale models of thin- wing WW I bipes probably need wire bracing, or & ot of wing beet. Tae drag of circular: section stranded-stel cable is ‘very significant At fll speed, the drag ofthe wires and fitings may eqeal that ofthe wings, The necessary atachments for the wites ae also difficult to build into the wing stuctare while minimizing weight. Sueamlined solid wire can reduce the drag penalty by up to - bout 85 percent [Editor's note ‘Aero Scale minia- | | Lure flying wires—high ‘quay, reclined, model. size bracing wires-— are ‘veilable in fve sizes from the Nelson Airerapt Co. 21550 NW. Nicholas Cr,, Unit D. Hillsboro, OR 97124; (800) 552.8065,] ‘OTHER DRAG-PRODUCING ‘THINGS FOUND ON BIPES CCabane strats (for ataching the upper wing "the fuselage) made of und wire produce 4 ot more drag than you might think. Strats ‘made of thin aluminu-alloy sheet or of thin aircraft plywood or hards0d, shaped and sanded to a smooth airfoil seeton, ae far beter, drag-wise. Inteplane struts (betweoe the two wings) slovenly fabricated of round ‘dowels are sometimes seen on bine models, ‘These prodacs wemendous drag. Everything ‘exposed 10 the airstream stould he given a ‘smooth, streamlined shape wherever possi- bie. A motley bunch of litle refinements hive a wey of adding up 10 produce a fot of ‘dag reduction and reward you with sbi ‘tha es much ete, UPPER AND LOWER WINGS OF UNEQUAL SIZE Many designers of full-scale alr~ craft, observing that the lower ‘wing abways ges the shor end of the stich, etficiney-wise, reduce its size and enlarge the upper ‘wing. This raises overall wing eificieney while it retains the weight-aving advange of wire bracing. Aerodynamically, such bige is litle closer to 1 more efficient monoplane. As you might expec, the greater the dif- {erence between the size of the wo wings, the closer the comb nation approaches monoplane siiceney, This lithe ploy was simply one step down the roadIeding to siru-braced and, ultimately, inbraced monoplane gs. adit shoald De ‘garded with suspicion by dyed in-the-woot ‘plane fanciers. Enluging the upper wing alia rises the eater of it and drag. The fest: bipe that may handle mote like a high-wing trairer far fron de for toot, cea stobaic) Enlarging the lower instead of the upper Wing might make more sense for aerobatics, bue ie woutd produce a somewhat ade: Joking bipe. This layou raze inthe fll sale worl, For a piven maximum wingspan, wings with equal chords and spans have been found to de far superior to wnequel-wing combinations, An aqal-winged bipe Witt the same wingspan and wing erea monoplane typically produces about 22 pet- ey Jess induced drag tan the monoplane. ‘With a given wingspan bes can develop more lift with less induced drag than & ‘mayeplane—one of their stongest points. “Ther compect over dmersions i ation > wing area is another bonis—a hig hep raking themn more readily transportable in the average car. If one wing has » shorter epan, for test efficeny, is chord stoald be propor tionally reduced by at least as much ab its spt Theory says thet the wing's shor should be reed propoicnslly to the cube of its span, bt, in many cases, this produces 4 chord dt i 00 small be practical. For ‘example f the shorter wingspan is redaced to O8 times the span of the longer wing, then the chord should be reduced 10 8 to the third power or shout half the cbord of the larger wing. {fy the next installment, 1" Yook at plane wings, bipe tail festhers, interplane sect dsign ad fr ts ote ny ‘designs. See you then.