This flying wing shape seems to yield interesting results. Flight
direction is towards the top of the page. The wing is flat with the two
ouside triangles slightly bend upwards. The center of gravity is
located on the black dot:
The prototype was made in paper. The slightly darker surface is made of
two layers of paper glued together. The dark front part is made of many
layers of tightly folded and glued paper on the upper side:
A view from the front:
This prototype is made out of an A4 sheet of paper. Wing span is 295
mm, chord is 68 mm and weight is 5 grams.
The basic idea behind this shape was the two outside triangles would
serve to control the yaw. At first I thought to use two vertical little
surfaces, like this:
Suppose the glider yaws rightwards. The left surface will brake more
while the right surface brakes less. This is supposed to make the wing
yaw back leftwards:
I tried out this system with paper gliders and got stable flights when
lifting only slightly the outside surfaces. I finally got to the shape
presented in this text, which has a good flight yield.
I don't know exactly how the air moves around this wing shape. I
believe one reason for the finesse is the upwards triangles decrease
the lift on the outside parts of the wing. Maybe this mimics the shape
of wing tip salmons or seagull wings, like my previous glider.
I don't know if this wing shape can be made stable enough to build a
serious airplane. Anyway it seems interesting for RC flight. When
lifting more upwards the two triangles the wing keeps a stable flight,
yet it is braked and looses altitude quickly. When lifting a little
only one triangle the wing is made to turn.
