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After searching the literature the closest thing to what we (my
brother and I) want to build is called the "Aqua-Glider" which is made mostly out of wood. I thought we might copy the design but substitute materials. For the fuselage and tail we would use fibreglass/foam sandwich construction. Welded aircraft tubing for the tail section of the fuselage (my brother has a TIG welder). Having a tubular after body section (fuselage section behind the step) is a concern since usually on takeoff that section is the last to touch the water and also what one lands on, I've never seen a flying boat without one. For the wing I was planning on using a built up wing with sheet aluminium ribs with a wooded solid plywood or box spar. I was also thinking about using an aluminium tube spar rather than a wood spar but was unsure about how to connect it to the ribs? If one had a very soft Al one might be able to form a circular flange that the tube spar could slip into which could then be glued. Another way might be to attach a piece of wood to the rib (both with holes though them) and then glue the wood to the tube spar. Is their a better way to attach Al ribs to an Al tube spar? I know typically 2 or 3 layers of fibreglass are used for each side of the fuselage with .5"/10mm foam sandwiched in-between. I couldn't find a plan or information on using fibreglass sandwich construction for the hull of a flying boat as most seem to use moulded fibreglass construction or wood covered with fibreglass. Any ideas on the number of layers required? After reading a book about gliders and the high lift airfoils that the Germans used in the 20s and 30s and since takeoff and flight speeds are similar to the German gliders (around 25mph) I think I should probably use a high lift airfoil. Although the NACA4412 airfoil and thicker variations are very common on flying boats, I think most of them used flaps especially with the thicker airfoils. I want to build a simple wing without flaps. Since the following airfoils may be too aggressive and are done at a bit too high a Reynolds number (2.5 million compared to 1 million): http://www.kaiyipboxing.com/WIG/INDEX.HTM, does anyone have any suggestions on good airfoils to use or are some of those okay to use? I was also considering a Parasol type design for added stability. This would allow the usage of a lower shoulder for the fuselage and rather than mounting the engine in pusher configuration on the shoulder, the engine could be mounted onto the wing. The problem with the parasol is that I couldn't find any design for a parasol flying boat. I may have to buy multiple plans and try to combine the two. Also since the wing is so high, rather than tip floats I'll probably have to put outriggers on the sides of fuselage. Does anyone know of any plans that I could use/combine for this type of design? Brock |
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