CONSEQUENCES OF INCREASING WATER BALAST

Authors

  • Wieslaw Stafiej

Keywords:

Aerodynamics, Structures, Design, Safety

Abstract

The tendency to increase the water ballast amount in competition sailplanes follows from the resulting performance improvement especially in strong thermals. On the other hand the increased water ballast results in decreased controlability and increased structural loads of the sailplane. The degradation in the rolling controlability with increasing water is very noticable. The yawing controlability is less affected. Increased water ballast produces a considerable increment in gust load factor. The influence of the water ballast amount on the loads of the various sailplane components, as illustrated by the data for the SZD-55 sailplane, requires the structure to be strengthened. This, in turn, leads to higher mass of the empty glider and affects the cockpit loading possibilities.

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Issue

Vol. 17 No. 3 (1993)

Section

Articles

License

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