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Home > Articles & Tips > Actively Stabilized Flying Wing Plank Project > High Start and Winch Launches [Courtesy of Helmut Lelke, hlelke "at" worldnet.att.net, February 2002]
High Start and Winch LaunchesWithout the enormous dampening power of a horizontal stabilizer the plank
rotation speed into final launch attitude at the start of the launch can be very
quick and it can be very stressful for the flying wing structure in general and
to the AOA sensor unit vane in particular. The rotation moments at launch are
due to offsets between tow hook position and wing center of pressure. The best
way to minimize that initial moment is to position the tow-hook as close to the
wing center of pressure as possible. Special harnessing might be one way to
solve this problem. A more practical solution is to minimize the wing dihedral.
Zero dihedral is best with the tow-hook as close to the wing center of pressure
as possible and just slightly ahead of the CG. Albatross II for example uses an
airfoil-shaped tow-hook assembly made of thin steel and slips over the wing-rods
next to the fuselage pod per Figure 14. With this arrangement the launches are
close to what is expected of a conventional tailed glider.
Figure 13. AOA Hall-Effect Sensor Component Figure 14. Airfoil-shaped Tow-hook Assembly    |
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