To get
low induced drag, you need the sum of all lifting surfaces to have an
elliptical lift distribution.

Lemme display my ignorance here. I always thought that the elliptical
lift distribution minimized wingtiptip effects. That being the case
(ignoring the wake of the canard for the moment), then each wing should
have an elliptical lift distribution. When you toss in the wake effects,
is having the sum of all lifting surfaces give you an elliptical
distribution a handy approximation, or is it what you really want from
first prinicples?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer
currently building the C-frame table for the RV-10 project