"Bob Kuykendall" wrote in message
om...
Earlier, "Bill Daniels" wrote:

It seems the aerodynamics of gliders has
reached a point of near perfection where
further performance increases are likely
to be very small...

I believe that is true for span-limited performace.

There are probably substantial gains to be had by applying
technological advances to increase span, but at at rates that get very
steep when you look at the overall operational picture.

Where I wish the designers would concentrate
now is in the area of processes and materials
where reductions in manufacturing costs might
be realized. A breakthrough here would have
large impact on the sport.

I think that is sort of a chicken-and-egg kind of thing.

At production run rates of several thousand gliders per manufacturer
per year, I would guess that it would be economically viable to apply
existing manufacturing technologies that could drastically reduce the
per-unit price of a typical 15-meter glider. And by drastically, I
mean between to between a quarter and a third of current prices.

The trouble is that without a huge demand for gliders there is no
incentive to spend the capital that it would take to build the
manufacturing infrastructure that it takes to make them inexpensively.
And without plentiful inexpensive gliders, soaring will continue to be
popular among only (relatively) affluent people.

I absolutely agree that it would be great if there were some sort of
breakthrough that would drastically lower the manufacturing costs of
conventional low-volume gliders. But even modest gains in that area
will help nudge us towards the popularity spiral that it will take to
attact real capital investment.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24

I remember the first fiberglass gliders where huge effort was expended to
make the plugs from which the molds were made. All labor intensive hand
sculpture. Now CNC techniques can cut the plugs or even cut the molds
directly. Where we once used glass fiber we now use carbon/epoxy pultrusion
rods. Some progress is being made.

Recently, I've been playing with solid UHMWPE. I have no idea whether a
glider could be made of it but it's fascinating stuff - very light, strong,
slippery and with fantastic abraision resistance. I understand it can be
injection molded.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels