One issue with your wing design is that the sphericon is a geometric
solid. (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Sphericon.html) It rolls in a
straight line by wobbling from side to side along its continuous face.
An interesting novelty, with perhaps some utility in mechanical
devices - wobbling bearings, maybe? But an efficient propulsor? Just
because something is a neat shape doesn't make it deeply meaningful or
wonderfully useful.

There was a similar situation in the late 30's early 40's with the
"Davis wing". Davis designed an airfoil based on some obscure and
difficult geometric mathematics - a curve described by a point on a
circle as it rolls along a line that's... eh, I forget. It was
complicated. But convincing, if confusing. Davis' dazzling/baffling
mathematical presentations convinced Consolidated to use the airfoil
for the B-24 Liberator.

It turned out that the airfoil was a very close approximation to a
laminar-flow design. That combined with the high aspect ratio of the
B-24's wing gave the machine its excellent performance. It also
turned out in the final analysis that the mathematics were bunk.
There was no connection between Davis' derivations and aeronautical
reality. (See the excellent book, "What Engineers Know and How They
Know It" for the full story.) Davis lucked out, is all.

The wing drawings and doodles on your website look as though you've
been inspired by the graceful, undulating movements of rays, squid,
and other sea creatures. The big difference between them and your
concept is that the ocean denizens have neutral bouyancy. They need
expend no energy overcoming gravity. The design would be very
interesting in a microgravity environment.


(patrick timony) wrote in message . com...
OK, how long before we can employ this in homebuilt aircraft?

Dan, U. S. Airforce, retired

I wouldn't recommend it, as flutter is a BIG problem with flexible
wings, tails, fins, etc.

The safety issues outweigh any performance gains here for a homebuilt --
especially for a high-performance one.

I think flexible winged craft could be safer. A really flexible and
evenly-tapered wing, gradated from high to low density toward the
core, would bend to allow its force to be spread over a large enough
area to keep the force constant. A wing suit with both arm and leg
wings would enable a person to "run" through the air, except that the
motion would be closer to doggy paddling. Flying would be easier than
scrambling up a flight of stairs on all fours. See the
"SphericonWing" design at my webpage:
http://patricktimony.tvheaven.com/photo3.html

Patrick Timony