On Friday, December 2, 2016 at 6:28:43 AM UTC-8, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:

Most gliders work out at about 6 (30 kg/m^2) dry with a 240 lb pilot, don't they?


An ASW27 would be about 40kg/m^2 with a 240lb pilot weight

L

Cost and repairability are factors with pre-preg although power aircraft like the Lancair use prepreg extensively. Newer spread-tow pre-pregs are amazingly light and stiff.

From a performance standpoint, span loading is a significant factor. For an equal wing loading and span, the lighter sailplane with the lower span load has lower induced drag. Reynolds numbers also play a factor when the chords get so small, but the aero community seems to be getting better at developing profiles that aren't hurt too much by this.

Cheers,
Craig