Wind Tunnel Tests of Eight Sailplane Wing-Fuselagle Combinations

Abstract

When an "optimal " fusel age is added to an "optimal " wing, the perfornrance of the combination may be disappointing due to wing-fuselage interference effects. There is extensive literature on this subject indicating the complexity of the problem, however, publications focussed on sailplane application are scarce. In order to get insight in the flow phenomena and to gather experimental data, also useful in sailplane performance estimation studies, a literature study and a wind tunnel investigation has been performed. The measurements were made in the low-speed, low-turbulence wind tunnel of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. The wind tunnel models were provided by DFVLR Braunschweig. They were made and used in a previous wind tunnel experiment by R. Radespiel. Some results of this study are gratefully quoted.