CEF speed contest Design Discussions (2014)

JPvelo wrote:
Good question Mike and good point Phil.
I hadn't really thought about it until now. I lifted the rules for this from 1/2a profile proto and we've adapted them along the way to incorporate scale and try to get more speed from a reed powered plane.
The 12.5 biplane span is from the proto rules. That's a combined span of 25 inches. To me it would make sense to change the biplane rule to minimum combined wingspan of 25" with minimum 45 square inch wing area. That way you can make top and bottom span whatever you like as long as they hit the 25" combined span mark.

Thoughts?

Jim

I think I agree with Phil. I believe the 45 squares rule, and the requirement to look 'scale', would do a pretty good job of keeping everything fairly even. There were a few planes that were called "sesquiplanes" (As in one and a half wings) that could be accurately modelled with really small lower wing, but the spider's web of struts on those things would be penalty enough!

By the way, after doing some scribbling it does look like the 24" combined span could make it a bit tough to maintain a scale look without going way over 45 squares, for whatever that may be worth. Things start to look like two-winged sailplanes...

Discaimer: The plane I had in mind to build (Beck-Mahoney Scorceress) flew with both equal span wings and with a shorter lower wing. Either way you decide, it won't really affect what I had in mind, though with the shorter lower span I can get down to about 48 squares without it starting to look too funny! (Kinda looks funny enough already)




Might only get one flight out of it; what are the chances of a successful landing on those bottom wings!

Cheers guys!

Mike