Home > Articles & Tips Index > Mark Drela's SuperGee II DLG

[Courtesy of Mark Drela, drela "at" mit.edu, October 2003 - web presentation by Tomer Jackman, jackman_tomer "at" EMC.com]

Construction notes are included in the drawings, which you can download as Acrobat v6 PDF documents in the links below. If you need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

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 See the SuperGee construction page!  Includes construction tips and a standard (non RDS) wing design

Introduction

For some of you, Mark Drela needs no introduction...  For the others, Mark has held indoor HLG records and innovated in many aspects of HLG design for the indoor crowd. He is a well known aerodynamicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and who has won the world wide recognition for his DLG design in the soaring community.

The SuperGee II

The SuperGee II, is the second generation DLG designed by Mark. It’s most visible feature are the “Flaperon RDS” (Rotary Drive System). Under it’s skin it has a new set of airfoils, as described in the New SuperGee Airfoils page.

SuperGee II Construction

SuperGee II plan (Acrobat PDF)

SuperGee II fuselage pod details (Acrobat PDF)

SuperGee II tail shaping data and diagram (Acrobat PDF)

SuperGee II RDS (Acrobat PDF)

Airfoil Coordinates and Polars

Construction Notes and photos

Wing servos and RDS

The wing servos are “hidden” inside the wing cavities created for this purpose. The linkage goes into the RDS mechanism.

In this photo you can see the RDS linkage show thru the Flaperon hinge when the Flaperon is being deflected.

Wing pylons and ballast

This photo shows the wing pylons, as they extend from the bottom of the wing. Along with them the connector for the wing electronics.

Wing Tip and Launch Peg

Vertical Stabilizer and Rudder

Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator

Fuselage pod

Related links – further reading:

Using the Rudder in Thermal Flying

Center of Gravity

Best of luck, and please let us know how you're doing with your SuperGee II !

Document Version History

October 26, 2003 - TJ
- Initial