Feds Want to Equipe Gliders With Transponders and Radios

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:03:33 -0700 (PDT), WingFlaps
wrote in
:

On Apr 28, 9:32*am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:34:55 -0700 (PDT), WingFlaps
wrote in
:

A radar reflector like they use on weather balloon ought be
sufficient. It is just a piece of foil with a large cross section.

That's a constructive suggestion. *

How large must such a radar reflector be? *

It's a retroreflector, I have one in the form of a tube about 3 inches
in diameter and 2 feet long. The corner cubes are inside that. I have
no idea how effective it is compared to a classic reflector which
occupies *a cube about 1 foot across and retroreflects the radar
equally in all directions.
...

Interesting. *Thanks for the information. *

How do you think it might affect a sailplane's L/D?


Well, if the sailplane skin is transparent to radar a big reflector
could be mounted inside, they don't weigh much. On the other hand a
cylinder type reflector could be made quite aerodynamic and even
incorporated into (say) the wing tips?

Cheers

That sounds like a very simple, inexpensive and effective solution to
the issue. Best of all, the pilot can't turn it off. :-)