Solved Competition Chuck glider

ja_ovalle

Member
Hello guys,
I need to build a foamboard chuck glider, for the longest distance for a competition in school with 40cm2 to 1m2 (16 inch to 1 ft) I can only use:
foamboard
tape
cold glue( I know it sucks)
Little model sticks
My view on this is to build a large wingspan for a better glide ratio using ft technics,but my main problem is how do I properly secure the wing to the fuselage, what Ive been doing is just cut a hole through the fuselage and insert it but If you guys know any other technics with these aterials that would be great.Also it need to be my own design,not copied.I also noticed gliders have a the cg further back than planes.

Any help would be appreciated thanks guys.
 

Ketchup

4s mini mustang
Your method should work well if your glue is strong enough or if your plane is small enough. If you are really worried you could add some wooden wing supports but it will add weight. Don’t forget to add some dihedral or polyhedral though. Good luck!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Just a few tips/ideas.
You will need to minimize the drag and the wing loading but you need weight. The weight is the source of the craft's energy as simply put you can throw a baseball further than you can throw a feather!
A proper profile will help minimize LE and TE drag issues.
You can save weight by removing the paper from the FB. The removed paper can be folded and glued and used as reinforcing like wing spars and struts if required.
A coat of liquid glue over the bare foam can stiffen it markedly and when applied to FB with the paper still fitted it can become extremely rigid.
Dihedral will be required though polyhedral would be better. Pendulum stability would be valuable in keeping the dihedral/Polyhedral angles smaller.
You will require a vertical stabilizer of sorts but keep its overall height low as its LE can add significant drag.
If fitting a fuselage make it short and keep the tail surfaces rather small as they do add stability but they also add significant drag.Additionally if using a tail the tail incidence angles will make a difference to the distance achieved.
A Delta or truncated Delta wing planform generally offer the lowest source of LE drag with the greatest wing area and so wing loading.

Build a few smaller sized models using cardboard first to get an idea of what works best for you and then scale up the design and build it in the FB.

Have fun!