Separate wing and aileron wingtips....

Other than not having to worry about wingtip to aileron alignment, what advantages (and disadvantages) would there be to have the wingtip split into two parts?

A wingtip on the wing, then a mini wingtip for the aileron...........

I see possible advantages if you reflex the aileron to match the flap, then you'd have a straight wing all the way across (same advantage with drooping ailerons.....)

For clarity, a sketch of what I think Ed proposed...essentially an extended aileron.
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Well the outboard hinge has to be attached to the metal wing so whatever loads are felt out there with the extension would have to be held by that hinge.

I have seen it before on a certified aircraft. It was actually an aileron horn, similar to the rudder and elevators on our RVs. One big caviet, it was designed that way. Our planes are designed differently. There will be additional aerodynamic and structural forces acting on the aileron, the wing tip, hinge, rear spar, etc.

Interesting to think about. Off the top of my head, here are some potential cons to think about.

1. Would have to beef up the area to handle the different air loads
2. would change aileron balance
3. would need to be extensively flight tested to see what that sort of monkeying around did to roll rate, spin recovery, & yaw.
4. because it's changing the dynamic forces on the aileron hinges, you might see weird wear patterns on them, or actually end up with higher stick forces.

all that stuff above could be overcome, so you'd just have to decide if the potential upside would be worth the hassle.

As far as an upside, pretty much all I see other than the coolness factor of doing something unique, would be that maybe the roll rate would increase a small amount, but as I mentioned above, even thats not a sure thing until you do the math and/or actually try it.

What I really suspect would happen is...not much.

emsvitil said:

Other than not having to worry about wingtip to aileron alignment, what advantages (and disadvantages) would there be to have the wingtip split into two parts?

A wingtip on the wing, then a mini wingtip for the aileron...........

I see possible advantages if you reflex the aileron to match the flap, then you'd have a straight wing all the way across (same advantage with drooping ailerons.....)

Click to expand...

I don’t see this to have any advantage, and a boatload of downside. I would also would not trust the outboard aileron skin and rib to be able to handle the stress. The best case for a failure is a torn up aileron - the worst case would be jammed roll control.

If you install the wings, carefully rig the flaps then ailerons, and only then fit the wingtips you will not have an aileron to wingtip misalignment.

Carl

I'd be very interested to see what Steve's thoughts would be on this...