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The RV-12 Prototype Is Painted

I really think if we were seeing the new wing, we would also be hearing about it.
 
c177tx said:
Could care less what they look like to some bird flying by.
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If so, then you wont mind going to flyins to proudly show off your new bird with its unfinished exterior, no paint, fiberglass cowling, scratches ect. Its a nice statement to make, but I doubt very much you actually mean it.

Sorry, but its a fact of life, looks do matter. Put two like planes side by side, same price, one with sleek looking lines and a beautiful paint job, the other with shop scratches and an unfinished exterior and you tell me which one is gonna sell first, every time. Why would Vans bother to put a paint job on the -12 if looks didn't matter?

In the extremely competetive LSA market where strict flight parameters are cloned, Vans cannot afford to put an ugly duckling among the swans. In that arena, looks do indeed matter.
 
Jamie,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course, but the quorum seems to agree that the RV12 is "Butt ugly", (which wont stop it selling to hard core enthusiasts).

As for RV aesthetics my 8 turned a few heads, but it took a really great paint job by John Starh to disguise the unflattering form. (Slab wings, bubble canopy etc).

There are some good looking airplanes out there, but only a few classic designers such as Michel Columban and Rene Fournier that stand out.

In van's case it is very much function over form and he seems unable to marry the two - the RV12 is no exception.

Nic



Jamie said:
Huh?. There are few airplanes out there that look better than the RV series, especially in the kit-built market.

When we fly young eagles we'll have 5 or 6 airplanes out there. Which one do you think all the kids want to ride in? Yep, the RV if there's one there.
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westexflyboy said:
Study this photo from February 10. I don't think we're seeing the new wing yet.

http://www.eaa292.org/images/RV12Visit/RV12.02.jpg

Chase Snodgrass
Presidio, TX
http://flybigbend.com
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I think Van must have been playing around with some idea on this wing. I have seen earlier photos where the flaperon was clearly a constant chord the whole length. Now it clearly has a step in the chord midspan. Was he trying to boost the aileron power?

Hey, who among our RV-12 enthusiests is going to be our Oshkosh reporter to get us the inside story in a couple of weeks? I can't make it this year.
 
FrankS said:
I think Van must have been playing around with some idea on this wing. I have seen earlier photos where the flaperon was clearly a constant chord the whole length. Now it clearly has a step in the chord midspan. Was he trying to boost the aileron power?

Hey, who among our RV-12 enthusiests is going to be our Oshkosh reporter to get us the inside story in a couple of weeks? I can't make it this year.
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Hi Frank,
I don't think he was trying to boost aileron power...

Read my post a couple above, I think he was trying to generate more lift inboard. The easy (non elegant) way to do that without redoing the entire wing is the shorten the cord of the wing (Leading Edge to Trailing Edge Distance) in this case justs shorten the control surface width. We know he was not happy with the stall and airflow in that region close to the stall. I know I would do that first before redoing the wing...

In a nutshell a shorter cord, same thickness wing generates more lift, than a longer cord. You can simply (non elegantly) change the cord by changing the control surface width. If that does not help you will have to change the wing profile, and the entire wing. "Thicker" wings relative to their cord generally makes more lift, up to a point, then it is not a wing any more...

Proof in case from my RC plane design days I designed and build combat flying wings out of alternative materials. I am not an expert just a DIY aerodynamic guy, and if you just look at flying wings, you can sense these things are very sensitive since they do not have horizontal stab. If set up right they turn on a dial in pitch, cause there is no horizontal stab back there to drag around. But there-in lies a problem as well, if the wing start to stall and drop a wingtip things go bad, fast, into a spin. The easy way to ensure that you keep control of the flying wing when it stall is to ensure the wingtips stall last. The easy way to do that is cut the ailerons at a taper hence shortening the cord of the wing vs thickness of the rest of the wing. That means the tips will keep flying while the mid portion of the wing starts to stall and the plane just nose down build speed and flies on. The other way around and you have spectacular effects especially on a flying wing.

The picture below shows clearly the ailerons cut to a taper at the end. Without it the plane can not turn as tight in a controlled fashion. The wing is a double taper wing, but the chord vs thickness ratio stays the same, i.e. almost like a RV bar wing (almost for the layman's aerodynamics). Except for the wing tips where the relative thickness ratio increase and produce more lift, and less stall compared to the main wing. The design and plans are on my website, contact me via email if you guys want more info on this RC model.

I hope all that was worth-while... :D
Well at least watch and enjoy the video of it if you don't understand a thing I wrote above and see how controllable this thing was:rolleyes:
http://www.rudigreyling.com/rc%20movies/draco_640x480x30fps_8.5mb_500kbs.wmv


Kind Regards
Rudi
draco_small_03.jpg
 
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Just saw the recently released close up video of the RV12
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/719428/vans_rv_12_arlington_airshow/

I had to come back here and admit my speculation was wrong :eek: ....
The video clearly shows from 0:30 - 0:40 seconds a step in the outboard side of the flaperon. So the outboard portions are wider, not narrower on the insides. So looks like Van's made those portion wider.

Interesting....

Any case wonder when we will see the new wing, and if it will have it's wheel pants on by the time it goes to Osh?

Regards
Rudi
 
FrankS said:
I think Van must have been playing around with some idea on this wing. I have seen earlier photos where the flaperon was clearly a constant chord the whole length. Now it clearly has a step in the chord midspan. Was he trying to boost the aileron power?

Hey, who among our RV-12 enthusiests is going to be our Oshkosh reporter to get us the inside story in a couple of weeks? I can't make it this year.
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Well, here's the rest of the story... I talked to the guys from vans at Arlington about it. Seems that with the current wing (not the new final one) the aileron's were very light. You would have thought that it would have adverse yaw, or possibly heavy ailerons with those full span flaperons, but no... So they cured the too light ailerons by adding a bit of length to the outboard part of the flaperons. By making the cord wider it makes the ailerons heavier (or so they say).
 
I was wondering about those flaperons (sp) when I saw the walk around video. I had questions on what the deal was with the extended chord for the aileron portion of the flaperon. I am glad others noticed that and posted here. It is very interesting.
 
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