Simviation Forums

Hi i am in the process of trying to sort a wing foil for a ground effects machine i am working on i have made a proto using the Clark y the problem i have is that I'm not so good at working out the math side of things here are the limitations of my design it will have a max speed of around 50 kts and have a total weight of approx 110kg including the pilot it is wind powered but not in the normal way also i only want it to lift approx 700mm to 1000mm then it will be held in the water with hydrofoils .so what i need to know is what foil is best i have been looking at the liebeck l1003 (M) how big much wing area will i need to create lift at this low speed if there is anyone that is interested in pointing me in the right direction or would like to see my proto . most who have seen it have just gone WOW any help would be just awesome and hi from new Zealand the land of many inventions not to blow but my gr8 grandfather was ernest godward inventor of the modern day carburettor thanks and all replys apprecated

I can't answer those questions, but welcome to the forums!

I would suggest you just try an online search under "wing area formula" or something... the data you need is probably out there somewhere.

skyte,

Go here for some tools and reference material.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/hsors/index.html

And NACA airfoil numbers and reference:

http://www.ae.uiuc.edu/m-selig/ads/aircraft.html

thanks for your reply i will chek out the site

Excuse my ignorance, but why does a model need an accurate airfoil to function in a sim? Can't we just model what we want and by digital magic, make it work? We ain't buildin' Swiss watches, here. Can we not just write in the config files what we need to make it fly?

Of course you can.  The model can be a box, a brick or a tree.  

I use them to get the shape right to satisfy the more observant among us.

You can make a Boeing 747 fly like a hang glider or a fighter like 747.

Getting the foil data can provide key information for the flight model if one is into that.

Generally you can get by with basic dimensional information and a few calculations if you are using FM tools.  Jerry Beckwith's Airwrench comes to mind, or his predecessor, the Flight Dynamics Spreadsheet.

Skyte has a different kind of model to make fly and it will be a challenge with not a lot of like products out there to learn from.  So, finding the appropriate modeling data is crucial as will be his knowledge of FS flight modeling.

I don't think you are getting anywhere with NACA aerofoil data...

Some stuff that might help
TSAGI aerofoil data (wind tunnel and water basin testing)
http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?aut ... wfile=2565

Video with some nice closeups... watch the lift flaps at the end of the wings. Also shows some early designs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv2dUgbS ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeUe6aVib08

Even longer video
http://rutube.ru/tracks/17662.html?v=c6 ... 0385f4b4aa

Some more technical details (one of the guys in this thread was a student of Alexeyev, the inventor of the Ekranoplan)
http://www.englishrussia.com/forum/view ... sc&start=0