Ente (oz15512)

About this Plan

Ente. Simple profile glider model. Canard layout. Wingspan 400 mm.

This plan appeared in the book "Flugmodelle Bauen und Einfliegen" by Werner Thies & Willi Rolf, 1975.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote (google-translated): "Four hand-held gliders made of balsa wood. Now that we have built a few small gliders out of paper and cardboard, we will go a step further and use the light balsa wood as the material for building the models. Balsa wood can be found in many toy shops and of course also in model shops. It is sold in small boards 80 to 100 mm wide and about 1 m long. It is available in thicknesses of 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5 and more millimeters. To build the hand-held gliders, you only need balsa wood that is 1 mm and 2 mm thick.

The first model we want to build is the 'Ente' (Fig. 43, see Plate II, at the end of the volume). In this [canard] type of aircraft, which was very common at the beginning of aviation, the horizontal tail unit is in front of the wing. That is original. The head wing, that is what the horizontal tail assembly is called here, and the wings are cut out of 1 mm thick balsa, the fuselage from 2 mm balsa wood.

As the balsa wood is very soft, we draw the contours of the fuselage and the wing on the boards with a fine felt-tip pen, cut them out and then glue the vertical tail assembly to the fuselage. For this we use UHU-hart or another solvent glue. Now the head wing is curved forward a little and glued to the front part of the fuselage so that its leading edge is straight. The head wing is not V-shaped. After cutting out the two wing halves, they are joined together so that the wing is arrow-shaped, i.e. that the wing tips are pulled back like a swallow. We now place a strip of paper about 2 cm wide under the separation point and glue the two wing halves together again with UHU-hart.

The wing should have a slight V-shape of about 4 cm on each side. The best way to achieve this is to attach one half of the wing to a straight board with pins and place an 8 cm wide piece of cardboard underneath the other half. To reinforce the fold, glue another strip of paper over the glued area. After the glue has dried, the wing is glued under the end of the fuselage and secured with pins until it dries. This completes the construction of our first balsa glider.

When the glue has hardened, which takes about 1 hour, the model can be balanced. In aviation, 'balancing' means determining the center of gravity. To support this point, the model must be balanced. The center of gravity is a little behind the wing nose (Fig. 44).

Nothing now stands in the way of the first flight attempts. Sufficient longitudinal stability can only be achieved with a canard if the head wing provides a specifically greater lift than the wing. Therefore, the profile curvature must be greater than that of the wing. It must also have a larger angle of incidence than the wing."

Supplementary file notes

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