Flyvende Vinge RC (oz14053)

About this Plan

Flyvende Vinge RC. Radio control slope soarer model. Flying wing layout.

Quote (google translated from the Danish): "Radio-controlled flying wing. Kjeld Kongsberg's unconventional RC sailplane.

Flying wings are said to be unstable and capricious - and a lot of other bad things. That's probably why you see so few of them. Kjeld Kongsberg designed and built last year, despite the bad reputation of the 'wings', an RC glider model of this type. He discovered to his delight that the wing was quite light and flyable, and that it flew brilliantly. Here he talks about the project himself.

I have always been fascinated by flying wings, but until recently I thought they were very difficult to get to fly properly. It must also be said that the specimens I have seen in my free-flying days confirmed this view.

In the summer of 1980, I was with the family on a camping trip in Germany. Here I took the opportunity to do some gliding at Deørnberg near Kassel, a fabled place in the history of German gliding, in reputation surpassed only by the Wasserkuppe. From the slope there is a deep, deep drop to the valley, and it was a bit of a strange feeling to throw your model out into the almost windless weather and then in the next few minutes see it from above against a background of forest, houses and high-voltage lines. Sooner or later there was a thermal, and then it just went up.

It was a pleasure to see how problem-free it could be to share the space with 'real' gliders, especially when you take into account the almost hysterical atmosphere that can sometimes be felt in Denmark. At times you could see 4-5 gliders, 8-9 models and a couple of buzzards in the same bubble!

Here I saw for the first time a really well-flying wing. The model was very similar to the one shown here, but had a slightly larger aspect ratio. I had a little chat with the pilot, who also turned out to be the constructor. He told me that this type was developed by the members of the Versmold model flying club. They have achieved great success with the type in recent years, both on slopes and high starts.

The philosophy behind the model is that it must be a small, compact model, thereby it can be built easily and also compensate for the low aspect ratio, as well as the somewhat ineffective from a stability point of view with the necessary S-profile. The purpose of the two cheeky fins is to separate the boundary layers of the flat tips with a small angle of incidence (thin boundary layer) from the layer in the middle wing with a high angle of incidence (thick boundary layer). Only the air now can figure it out] Anyway, I left there with plans to make such a one, and thus it remained for a long time, as so often before.

In the spring of 1981, one of the German magazines (which is very dull compared to Modelflyve Nyt) had a report from the German championships for flying wings in Kaltenkirchen. This high-start event was won by a fourteen-year-old pilot with a similar model shown in an overview drawing. A letter in my best German to the constructor brought no reply, so the pencil was sharpened and the fifth model was drawn.

I have been very pleased with the result, there are even some, well, maybe only one, who have asked for a copy of the drawing. The model can be built in a short time, and due to its compactness, it is quite difficult to break. Only the transition between the center wing and tipper has caused a bit more problems, here I would use a bit of fiberglass next time.

The wing is constructed in one piece in the traditional way, the center profiles are reinforced with 0.5 mm plywood, there is webbing between all strips, the tips have recessed strips which are glued in between strips and webbing..."

Note see also the German design Spezi (oz7906) flying wing by Lothar Wehmann, which seems to be the original design which this plan was inspired by.

Supplementary file notes

Article, in Danish.

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