Indoor flying: Glastonbury CT on March 5 , Georgetown MA on March 12.
Be there!
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Drat my Leading Edge busted!
We recently learned about Young’s Modulus and failure stress
for balsa as a function of density (Material Properties of Balsa for FAC Modelers).
And now our engineer-author William S. is back with a follow up; Mechanics of the Leading Edge. William tells us he took the deep dive into all this technology to solve the age old indoor flyers question “what leading edge won’t break when my plane hits a basketball hoop?“
And to think some of us see these stick and tissue models as just simple toys! Ah yes, to the uninitiated perhaps…
Read the latest article now
Thanks William, I liked how you wrapped up all the supportive math with the density and thickness of the balsa. I didn’t expect that path. My assumption was that the spring needed to be shorter. Your solution is good stuff.